ultrix man page for ethers

ethers(5)							File Formats Manual							 ethers(5)

Name
       ethers - database that maps Ethernet addresses to hostnames

Description
       The  file  is used in conjunction with the reverse address resolution protocol daemon, to map Ethernet addresses to hostnames.  It contains
       information about the known (48-bit) Ethernet addresses of hosts on the Internet.

       For each host on an Ethernet, a single line should be present in the file with the following information:

       Ethernet-address        official-host-name

       Items are separated by one or more spaces or tabs.  A number sign (#) indicates the beginning of a comment that extends to the end of line.

       The standard form for Ethernet addresses is:

       x:x:x:x:x:x

       The x is a hexadecimal number between 0 and ff, representing 1 byte.  The address bytes are always in network order.

       Hostnames can contain any printable character other than a space, tab, newline, or number sign (#).

       Hostnames in the file should correspond to the hostnames in the file or to those provided by the name service.

Examples
       The following is a sample file: 08:00:20:01:e5:1c       host1	    # Comments go here 08:00:20:01:d0:4c       host2	    # Comments	go
       here 08:00:20:01:e0:1d	    host3	 # Comments go here 08:00:20:00:c2:4e	    host4	 # Comments go here

See Also
       ethers(3n), hosts(5), rarpd(8c)
       Introduction to Networking and Distributed System Services

																	 ethers(5)