Hosts.ps1 is a PowerShell script for searching, adding, removing, and viewing the windows hosts file.

Hosts.md

HOSTS

Hosts.ps1 is a PowerShell script for searching, adding, removing, and viewing the windows hosts file from the terminal.

Exmaple

Usage: hosts add  
       hosts remove 
       hosts show
       hosts search 
       hosts open

Install

1. Open the "terminal" in administrator mode.
2. Copy and the paste the code under:

Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock ([Scriptblock]::Create((Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://gist.githubusercontent.com/KristofferRisa/e2316514b3bf8b92a461/raw/14f425eda1b906c2ef16289d639218304bb695ce/install-host.ps1' -UseBasicParsing).Content))

3. Done!

About

The script installs the "hosts.ps1" in the c:\tools\ folder (creates the tools folder if it doesn't exist). Then it adds the "c:\tools" folder into your PATH Environment variables so that you now can type "hosts" anywhere in your terminal

LICENSE

MIT

hosts.ps1

$file = "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts"

function Add-Host([string]$filename, [string]$ip, [string]$hostname) {
	Remove-Host $filename $hostname
	$ip + "`t`t" + $hostname | Out-File -encoding ASCII -append $filename
}

function Remove-Host([string]$filename, [string]$hostname) {
	$c = Get-Content $filename
	$newLines = @()
	
	foreach ($line in $c) {
		$bits = [regex]::Split($line, "\t+")
		if ($bits.count -eq 2) {
			if ($bits[1] -ne $hostname) {
				$newLines += $line
			}
		} else {
			$newLines += $line
		}
	}
	
	# Write file
	Clear-Content $filename
	foreach ($line in $newLines) {
		$line | Out-File -encoding ASCII -append $filename
	}
}

function Find-Hostname([string]$filename) {
	$c = Get-Content $filename
	
	foreach ($line in $c) {
		$bits = [regex]::Split($line, "\t+")
		if ($bits.count -eq 2) {
			Write-Host $bits[0] `t`t $bits[1]
		}
	}
}

function search-hosts([string]$filename, [string]$hostname){
	$c = Get-Content $filename
	$count = 0;
	$hostname = '*'+$hostname+'*'
	Write-Host "Searching for "$hostname
	foreach ($line in $c) {
		$bits = [regex]::Split($line, "\t+")
		if ($bits.count -eq 2) {
			if($bits[0] -like $hostname -or $bits[1] -like $hostname) {
				$count++;
				Write-Host $bits[0] `t`t $bits[1]
			}			
		}			
	}
	if($count -eq 0){
		Write-Host "No results"
	}	
}

try {
	if ($args[0] -eq "add") {
	
		if ($args.count -lt 3) {
			throw "Not enough arguments for add."
		} else {
			Add-Host $file $args[1] $args[2]
		}
		
	} elseif ($args[0] -eq "remove") {
	
		if ($args.count -lt 2) {
			throw "Not enough arguments for remove."
		} else {
			Remove-Host $file $args[1]
		}
		
	} elseif ($args[0] -eq "show") {
		gc $file
	} elseif ($args[0] -eq "open"){
		try {
			Start-Process 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe' $file
		}
		catch {
			Start-Process 'notepad.exe' $file
		}
	} elseif($args[0] -eq "search"){
		Write-Host 'test'
		Find-Hostname $file $args[1]
	} 
	
	else {
		throw "Invalid operation '" + $args[0] + "' - must be one of 'add', 'remove', 'show', 'search + [hosts]' or 'open'."
	}
} catch  {
	Write-Host $error[0]
	Write-Host "`nUsage: hosts add <ip> <hostname>`n       hosts remove <hostname>`n       hosts show`n       hosts search <hostname>`n       hosts open"
}

install-host.ps1

# Creates local folder (C:\Tools)
if(-not (Test-Path 'C:\Tools'))
{
    mkdir c:\Tools
}
if(Test-Path 'C:\Tools\hosts.ps1')
{
    del C:\Tools\hosts.ps1
}

[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", $Env:Path + ";C:\Tools", "User")

# Downloads the script
(new-object net.webclient).DownloadFile('https://gist.githubusercontent.com/KristofferRisa/e2316514b3bf8b92a461/raw/3cbe168a13ee7ac8ba93205e183e9ad5f732a257/hosts.ps1', 'c:\Tools\hosts.ps1')

Broken. To start with, there is no such thing as print-hosts $file, replace it with gc $file.

Thanks for your feedback @sergeevabc! I have updated the install and the hosts script 🚀