I'm reviewing a hosts file on a windows machine and I noticed that in addition to obvious comments that start with a # character, it also has lines that are comments but start with two tabs (or in some cases with several spaces), and no # or IP address before them. These "comments" follow immediately after well defined comment lines. EG:
# Obviously a comment line that starts with #
\t\t Is also a comment, but line starts with two tabs
\t\t Possibly is treated as a comment continuation??
From this Microsoft page, it says about hosts files:
The Hosts file contains lines of text consisting of an IP address in the first text field followed by one or more host names. Each field is separated by white space (Tabs are often preferred for historical reasons, but spaces are also used). Comment lines may be included, and they are indicated by a hash character (#) in the first position of such lines. Entirely blank lines in the file are ignored.
Which implies that comments should start with a #
The Wikipedia page on Hosts files is basically identical.
Is my hosts file malformed (and the issues are being ignored)? Or is there some arcane format that allows for comments to start without a leading # (possibly a comment continuation format from the previous line)?
