Is it okay to fix the socket.gaierror: [errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known problem?

Question

The error

import socket
 socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())
 
 Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#26>", line 1, in <module>
  socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())
 gaierror: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known

occurred when I update the mac to macOS Sierra. I've tried to fix it for some days but have not resolved it yet. Can someone suggest a relevant solution to fix the socket.gaierror: [errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known issue? Much appreciate your support.

lyytutoria · Accepted Answer

The cause: This error happens because you do not write the hostname in/etc/hosts in your program and you do also not determine the IP address of the host name for the local DNS configuration. Solution: To solve this error, you can convert your code to:

import socket
socket.gethostbyname("")

Another solution, when you use the computer name determined in /etc/hosts which have

127.0.0.1 ET02282-MAC.local
127.0.0.1 localhost

and in your connection use "ET02282-MAC.local", the error: ''[errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known'' will not exist.

Hugo Breton · Answer

There is an answer in OP’s comments based another query,, which requires that you edit /etc/hosts i.e. echo 127.0.0.1 $HOSTNAME >> /etc/hosts.

Alternativ, you could use socket.gethostbyname('localhost') assuming localhost is what your need is and it is defined within your /etc/hosts.

Sutton Singh · Answer

Today I experienced the same issue with MacOS Mojave. I was able fix it by using the Link that @FBL posted in the comments.

To do this, I had to go into System Preferences-> Sharing and enable sharing. I enabled printer sharing. It was then verified via ping $HOST. After that, I was able turn off sharing and everything (both codesTag11 and python -c 'import socket; print socket.gethostbysocketname(socket.gethostname()) still worked).

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Is it okay to fix the socket.gaierror: [errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known problem?