networks(5)

networks5

Network name data base

Overview

The networks file contains information regarding the known networks which comprise the DARPA Internet. For each network a single line should be present with the following information:

official network name
network number
aliases

Items are separated by any number of blanks and/or tab characters. A ``#'' indicates the beginning of a comment; characters up to the end of the line are not interpreted by routines which search the file. This file is normally created from the official network data base maintained at the Network Information Control Center (NIC), though local changes may be required to bring it up to date regarding unofficial aliases and/or unknown networks.

Network numbers may be specified in the conventional ``.'' (dot) notation using the inet_network(3) routine from the Internet address manipulation library, inet(3). Network names may contain any printable character other than a field delimiter, newline, or comment character.

Files

/etc/networks

The networks file resides in /etc.

Releases

87 releases since FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE; the text changed 44 times.

  1. 2.0.5–2.1.7.1
  2. 2.2.2–2.2.6
  3. 2.2.7–2.2.8
  4. 2.2.9
  5. 3.0–3.2
  6. 3.3–3.5.1
  7. 4.0–4.2
  8. 4.3
  9. 4.4–4.11
  10. 5.0–5.2.1
  11. 5.3–5.5
  12. 6.0–6.3
  13. 6.4
  14. 7.0
  15. 7.1
  16. 7.2
  17. 7.3
  18. 7.4
  19. 8.0
  20. 8.1
  21. 8.2
  22. 8.3
  23. 8.4
  24. 9.0
  25. 9.1
  26. 9.2
  27. 9.3
  28. 10.0
  29. 10.1
  30. 10.2
  31. 10.3
  32. 10.4
  33. 11.0
  34. 11.1
  35. 11.2
  36. 11.3
  37. 11.4
  38. 12.0
  39. 12.1
  40. 12.2
  41. 12.3
  42. 12.4
  43. 13.0–13.2
  44. 13.3–14.5
  45. 15.0–16.0

History

The networks file format appeared in 4.2BSD.

Bugs

A name server should be used instead of a static file.

From base 16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79 in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.