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I'd like to undo a sudo nano command

i used a sudo nano /etc/hosts command to set an artificial direct url.


Needless to say, it was a mistake. Is there a way to effectively say to the OS, "Go back to normal" so that my browsers go back to using DNS to locate and access the website?


The command I used was "sudo nano /etc/hosts www.websitename.com websitename.com xxx.xxx.xx.xx"


I have all the contents.


Your help will be a tremendous stress reducer!


Thanks

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Aug 24, 2022 5:33 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 26, 2022 11:54 AM

The answer turned out to be amazingly simple, though devilishly difficult to learn.


In Terminal, use the command "sudo nano /private/etc/hosts" to show a list of commands outstanding in Terminal

Select the command that you need to "erase" (actually just make ineffective, as it remains)

Put a hashmark # at the beginning of the line

Use the ^O command to make it stick, ENTER or RETURN, and ^X to exit Terminal

You're done.


It took four days to find this and five minutes to execute it. The magic search term was "bypass in Mac Terminal"

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 26, 2022 11:54 AM in response to Bob Christensen

The answer turned out to be amazingly simple, though devilishly difficult to learn.


In Terminal, use the command "sudo nano /private/etc/hosts" to show a list of commands outstanding in Terminal

Select the command that you need to "erase" (actually just make ineffective, as it remains)

Put a hashmark # at the beginning of the line

Use the ^O command to make it stick, ENTER or RETURN, and ^X to exit Terminal

You're done.


It took four days to find this and five minutes to execute it. The magic search term was "bypass in Mac Terminal"

Aug 24, 2022 8:25 PM in response to Bob Christensen

Bob Christensen wrote:

i used a sudo nano /etc/hosts command to set an artificial direct url.

Needless to say, it was a mistake. Is there a way to effectively say to the OS, "Go back to normal" so that my browsers go back to using DNS to locate and access the website?

The command I used was "sudo nano /etc/hosts www.websitename.com websitename.com xxx.xxx.xx.xx"

I have all the contents.

Your help will be a tremendous stress reducer!

Thanks


see if this is it—


Fixing a hacked up /etc/hosts file

Fixing a hacked /etc/hosts file - Apple Community




Aug 25, 2022 6:43 AM in response to Bob Christensen

FYI, It is always best to make sure to have a backup of any files before you start to modify them so you can restore them if something goes wrong.


You do realize "nano" is a command line text editor? You can just launch nano with the file name for the file you want to edit which can allow you to delete those changes. The link also applies to macOS as far as how to use the "nano" editor.

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/42980/the-beginners-guide-to-nano-the-linux-command-line-text-editor/


You also should not be using commands you have found on the Internet without understanding them and what they do. Plus you should always consider how you will recover if something goes wrong since there are no safety nets when using the command line.


Aug 25, 2022 10:50 AM in response to HWTech

HWTech -- Thanks for your answer. Given our situation, what file name should we be looking for? Or is there a list of files from which we could choose?


FWIW, we weren't "finding commands on the internet;" we were following the suggestions of one of trusted security vendors. They blew it; it happens. We're not happy, but are focused on the fix at the moment.

I'd like to undo a sudo nano command

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