To switch between the two, I have a launcher to a little gui I've written.
 | The Interface |
 | The Dialog raised on request. |
works great.
the code is below.
Incidentally, as /etc/hosts required root permissions, I call the write using gksu. KDE users would need to change this.
Here's the full code.
#! /usr/bin/env python
'''
This script modifies the /etc/hosts file so that I utilise this machines
web server rather than doing a dns lookup and going to the online
sites.
It's for testing purposes.
my /etc/hosts file has this text present.
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 rowinggolfer.org
127.0.0.1 openmolar.com
127.0.0.1 academydental.com
127.0.1.1 slim-maroon
and when I want to use the "cloud" servers, the sites listed in variable SITES
are commented out.
'''
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import re, subprocess, sys, tempfile
SITES = ["rowinggolfer.org", "academydental.com", "openmolar.com",]
class Dialog(QtGui.QDialog):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
QtGui.QDialog.__init__(self, parent)
self.setWindowTitle("toggle /etc/hosts file")
self.local_rb = QtGui.QRadioButton("Using localhost")
self.global_rb = QtGui.QRadioButton("Using remote host(s)")
layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self)
layout.addWidget(self.local_rb)
layout.addWidget(self.global_rb)
self.global_rb.setChecked(True)
self.local_rb.setChecked(self.check_state)
self.local_rb.toggled.connect(self.apply_changes)
def sizeHint(self):
return QtCore.QSize(200,50)
@property
def check_state(self):
'''
checks /etc/hosts to see if it is set to use the local instance of
apache2 for the SITES
'''
local = False
f = open("/etc/hosts", "r")
for line in f:
for site in SITES:
if re.match("127\.0\.0\.1[ \t]*%s"% site, line):
local = True
return local
def apply_changes(self, use_local):
host = "localhost" if use_local else "remote host(s)"
message = '''modify <em>/etc/hosts</em> so that
<b>%s</b> is used for the following sites?<ul>{sites}</ul>'''% host
sites = ""
for site in SITES:
sites += "<li>%s</li>"% site
message = message.replace("{sites}", sites)
result = QtGui.QMessageBox.question(self, "confirm", message,
QtGui.QMessageBox.Ok|QtGui.QMessageBox.Cancel,
QtGui.QMessageBox.Ok) == QtGui.QMessageBox.Ok
if result:
self.write_file(use_local)
success = use_local == self.check_state
if success:
QtGui.QMessageBox.inforamtion(self, "success",
"changes applied sucessfully")
self.local_rb.toggled.disconnect(self.apply_changes)
self.local_rb.setChecked(self.check_state)
self.local_rb.toggled.connect(self.apply_changes)
def write_file(self, local):
def repl(arg):
if local:
return re.sub("\n#*", "\n", arg.group())
else:
return arg.group().replace("\n", "\n#")
f = open("/etc/hosts", "r")
data = f.read()
f.close()
if not local:
for site in SITES:
data = re.sub( "(\n127\.0\.0\.1[ \t]*%s)"% site,
repl, data)
else:
for site in SITES:
data = re.sub( "\n#*127\.0\.0\.1[ \t]*(%s)"% site,
repl, data)
t = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile("w", delete=False)
t.write(data)
t.close()
p = subprocess.Popen(["gksu", "mv", t.name, "/etc/hosts"])
assert p.wait()==0
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QtGui.QApplication([])
dl = Dialog()
dl.exec_()
