Hostname to Localhost with Port - OSX [closed]

I am trying to run multiple Node.js web servers locally on my machine.

Because the code I'm writing needs to reference a domain name I'd like to keep a convention of dev.myHost.com and point that to the non-port-80 service running from Node (technically I'm running one on Harp.js and one on Sails.js).

• So dev.hostOne.com should point to localhost:123
• and dev.hostTwo.com should point to localhost:456

Is this possible? If so, how.

From my understanding, it seems that you only use one local dev machine, means not connected to any network that provides a DNS.

If i am right, i would suggest to setup things like described below :

step 1 : Assign at least two IP address to your MAC OS (one per domain), let's say :

192.168.0.10
192.168.0.11

To setup the second IP you will have to add a second Ethernet Adapter (logical not physical).

Step 2 : As you don't have a DNS server, you could setup your /etc/hosts file, by adding :

192.168.0.10     dev.hostone.com
192.168.0.11     dev.hosttwo.com

Step 3 : Assign aliases to your loopback interface :

sudo ifconfig lo0 192.168.0.10 alias
sudo ifconfig lo0 192.168.0.11 alias

Step 4 : Setup ipfw to forward packets :

sudo ipfw add fwd 127.0.0.1,123 tcp from me to 192.168.0.10 dst-port 80
sudo ipfw add fwd 127.0.0.1,456 tcp from me to 192.168.0.11 dst-port 80

You are done !

Now :

• http://dev.hostone.com redirects to localhost:123
• http://dev.hosttwo.com redirects to localhost:456

I've setup two Node.js web servers to test your case :

$ netstat -anp tcp | grep -E "123|456"
tcp4    0    0  127.0.0.1:123    *.*    LISTEN
tcp4    0    0  127.0.0.1:456    *.*    LISTEN

Important : note that ipfw rules and loopback interface aliases are not persistent and will no longer exist after a reboot. So consider adding a startup script.