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I added some lines to my /etc/hosts file to resolve a private hostname, but every time after rebooting, the lines I added get lost. Should there be any setting options to make these changes take effect?

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Do you edit it from root? – Daniil Aug 31 '12 at 2:54
@Daniil yes, of course – qiuxiafei Aug 31 '12 at 6:51
Are you using some third-party VPN client. Some "disfunctional" clients modify the /etc/hosts files themselves. – Gerry Aug 31 '12 at 8:09

4 Answers

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The Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client is known to show this behavior. It will reset your /etc/hosts file on reboot to the contents of /etc/hosts.ac.

If you use this VPN client, you should make your modifications to both files.

See this hint for more info.

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20111011050950471

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god, i really use Cisco AnyConnect VPN... – qiuxiafei Sep 5 '12 at 1:49
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Looks like some app deletes this lines from /etc/hosts on system startup. OS X itself doesn't delete any lines on startup nor reboot.

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And my estimated guess would be a third party VPN client. – Gerry Aug 31 '12 at 8:04
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After changing the hosts file, change the permissions on it to stop the file being modified. You may have to play a bit to see what works.

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up vote 0 down vote

Try sudo nano /private/etc/hosts in Terminal.

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