dscl – The Easy Way to Add Hosts on OS X

I noticed that the default /etc/hosts file has a comment saying not to alter the localhost.

   # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
   # when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
   ##
   127.0.0.1       localhost

It made me wonder what alternatives there were for adding additional hostnames for the loopback IP.

This article on dscl (https://tomafro.net/2009/07/dscl-the-easy-way-to-add-hosts-o...) is one such finding.

If anybody has suggestions about the best way to add hostnames for testing/override purposes, whether that's /etc/hosts or something else, please comment with your favorite.