SwitchHosts

SwitchHosts stores all its data in the ~/.SwitchHosts directory (or the .SwitchHosts folder in the current user's home directory on Windows).

Data Structure (v5)

• ~/.SwitchHosts/manifest.json: Stores the hosts tree.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/entries/: Contains the content of local and remote hosts.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/trashcan.json: Stores entries currently in the trash.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/internal/config.json: Stores user preferences.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/internal/histories/: Stores the history of the system hosts file and executed commands.

Backup Methods

• Full Manual Backup: Copy the entire ~/.SwitchHosts folder. This preserves everything, including preferences and history.
• App Export: Use the export feature within the application. This creates a JSON file containing a backup of the hosts data only; it does not include preferences or history.

SwitchHosts stores its data in the ~/.SwitchHosts directory (on Windows, this is the .SwitchHosts folder within your user profile directory).

Manual Full Backup

To perform a complete manual backup, copy the entire ~/.SwitchHosts folder.

Data Structure (v5)

• ~/.SwitchHosts/manifest.json: Stores the hosts tree.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/entries/: Stores local and remote hosts content.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/trashcan.json: Stores entries in the trash.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/internal/config.json: Stores preferences.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/internal/histories/: Stores system hosts and command execution history.

Application Export

Using the export feature within the application generates a hosts data backup in JSON format. Note that this export does not include preferences or history.

To develop or build SwitchHosts yourself, ensure you have the following prerequisites installed:

• Node.js
• Rust
• Tauri system dependencies

Development Workflow

1. Install dependencies: npm install
2. Run in development mode: npm run tauri:dev

Production Build

To create a production version, run: npm run tauri:build

The packaged files will be located in ./src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

# development
npm run tauri:dev

# production build
npm run tauri:build

To build SwitchHosts yourself, ensure you have Node.js, Rust, and the necessary Tauri system dependencies installed.

Development Workflow

1. Install dependencies: npm install
2. Run in development mode: npm run tauri:dev

Production Build

To create a production build, run npm run tauri:build. The resulting packaged files will be located in ./src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

# development
npm run tauri:dev

# production build
npm run tauri:build

You can install SwitchHosts using the following methods:

1. Direct Download: Download the latest pre-built version from the GitHub releases page.
2. Chocolatey (Windows): Use the Chocolatey package manager to install via PowerShell.
3. Build from Source: Follow the development instructions to build the application manually using Node.js and Rust.

choco install switchhosts

SwitchHosts stores its data in the ~/.SwitchHosts directory (on Windows, this is the .SwitchHosts folder within your User directory).

To perform a full manual backup, copy the entire ~/.SwitchHosts folder.

Note that using the application's internal export feature generates a JSON backup of the hosts data only; it does not include preferences or history records.

Data Structure (v5)

• ~/.SwitchHosts/manifest.json: Stores the hosts tree.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/entries/: Stores local and remote hosts content.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/trashcan.json: Stores items in the trash.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/internal/config.json: Stores preferences.
• ~/.SwitchHosts/internal/histories/: Stores system hosts and command execution history.

To develop or build SwitchHosts from source, ensure you have the following prerequisites installed:

• Node.js
• Rust
• Tauri system dependencies

Development Workflow

1. Install dependencies: npm install
2. Start development mode: npm run tauri:dev

Production Build

To create a production build, run: npm run tauri:build

The resulting bundled files will be located in ./src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

SwitchHosts stores individual host configurations as files within the entries/ directory of the application data folder. Each file is named <id>.hosts, where <id> is a unique identifier (typically a UUID).

Key behaviors:

• Newline Normalization: To ensure consistency across different platforms and prevent issues with line offsets, all content is always normalized to LF (\n) upon reading and writing. Even if you provide CRLF (\r\n) or lone CR (\r) input, the data stored on disk and returned by the API will use LF.
• System Application: Platform-native newline conversion (e.g., converting LF to CRLF on Windows) only occurs at the final step when applying the configuration to the actual system hosts file, not within the entry files themselves.
• File Persistence: Moving or renaming a node in the UI does not rename the underlying .hosts file.

SwitchHosts uses Apple's code-signing requirements to ensure secure communication between the main app and the privileged daemon.

• App Identity: The daemon verifies that the client is the genuine SwitchHosts app by checking its bundle identifier (net.oldj.switchhosts) and the Apple Developer Team ID (J5J6USUX2F).
• Daemon Identity: The app verifies the daemon's identity by checking that it is signed by the same Team ID. This prevents rogue processes from impersonating the Mach service.

These requirements are used with xpc_connection_set_codesigning_requirement to establish a trusted connection.

SwitchHosts employs different mechanisms for privilege elevation depending on the operating system: