Mac OS X ignoring hosts file

Question

Mac seems to be ignoring new changes to my hosts file. Older changes work without a problem. I've spent the past 4 hours trying to figure this one out. Help!

I have folders for each site that I develop in my /Sites folder. For example, several folders are named:

wp.dev
daf.dev
test.dev

I run MAMP, set the Apache Port to 80 and the MySQL Port to 3306 (so that I don't have to add the port to the address bar in a browser).

I have edited my /private/etc/hosts file as follows:

##
# 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 


127.0.0.1   wp.dev
127.0.0.1   daf.dev
127.0.0.1   test.dev
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

Here's the kicker: wp.dev and daf.dev have been around for over a month. They resolve without a problem in my browser. I added test.dev this morning. When I type it into a browser it simply searches "test.dev" as opposed to resolving a domain.

I can ping any of the above domains and they go to 127.0.0.1, including test.dev.

For what it's worth, I've tried virtualhostsx with the same problem. I also run dscacheutil --flushcache and restart MAMP when making changes.

I need to kick off development on a new site, and this is driving me crazy.

Answer 1

Try putting all your entries at the top of the file.

Not really logical, but worth a try.