# Reference
## Table of Contents
### Resource types
* [`host`](#host): Installs and manages host entries.
## Resource types
### `host`
For most systems, these entries will just be in `/etc/hosts`, but some
systems (notably OS X) will have different solutions.
#### Properties
The following properties are available in the `host` type.
##### `comment`
A comment that will be attached to the line with a # character.
##### `ensure`
Valid values: `present`, `absent`
The basic property that the resource should be in.
Default value: `present`
##### `host_aliases`
Any aliases the host might have. Multiple values must be
specified as an array.
##### `ip`
The host's IP address, IPv4 or IPv6.
##### `target`
The file in which to store service information. Only used by
those providers that write to disk. On most systems this defaults to `/etc/hosts`.
#### Parameters
The following parameters are available in the `host` type.
* [`name`](#-host--name)
* [`provider`](#-host--provider)
##### `name`
namevar
The host name.
##### `provider`
The specific backend to use for this `host` resource. You will seldom need to specify this --- Puppet will usually
discover the appropriate provider for your platform.