Editing the hosts file on macOS

This is how to edit the hosts file on macOS.
This was written on macOS 11.4 (20F71).

Run a terminal command

Edit it with the nano editor.
Enter the following command in Terminal.

% sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

At the password prompt, enter your macOS user password.
(The password is not shown on screen, so type it and press Enter.)

buffashe@buffashe-MacBook-Pro ~ % sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
Password:

Add or remove the entries you want.
Separate the IP address and hostname with a tab.
Do not edit the section marked with the red border.

Save with Ctrl+X (Exit) - Y (Save modified buffer) - Enter (File Name to Write).

Original hosts file

This is the contents of /private/etc/hosts on macOS 11.4 (20F71).

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1       localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost

Reference

hosts (file)