The chosts utility expands the arguments into a list of host names.

The following operands are supported:

name

The parameter name can be a hostname or a cluster name. If name is a hostname, it is expanded to be a hostname. If name is a cluster name, that is, an entry exists in the /etc/clusters database (or a NIS or NIS+ map), it is expanded into the list of hosts that make up that cluster, as specified in the database. The list is typically used by programs that wish to operate on a list of hosts.

If an entry for clusters has been made in the /etc/nisswitch.conf file, then the order of lookups is controlled by that entry. If there is no such file or no such entry, then the nameservice look up order is implicitly nis files.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

cconsole(1M), crlogin(1M), ctelnet(1M), cports(1M), clusters(4), attributes(5)