Remapping DNS Lookups in a JRE
Normally, when Java code opens a socket to some URL, the named host is looked up in the host system /etc/hosts and if not found then a DNS server is consulted.
I recently had a problem where a Java library I was using was trying to connect to a host whose IP address I already knew, but whose name was NOT available using the normal lookups. This problem was only occuring in a development environment, and during integration tests, so the solution was clear: hijack the usual JRE name resolution to force my desired lookup.
Do you sometimes get the feeling that code you have written is so ugly that it is somehow beautiful? I think this qualifies .. and it solves the problem.