Is that what you want? A local network defined entirely by hosts files?
You can do that. It's easy. Just edit your /etc/hosts files to contain
the names and addresses of your machines.
In this scenario, your resolv.conf file will be used only to look up
hosts that live outside of your local network ("in the cloud"). You
won't CARE what the default DNS domain name is, because you aren't using
it. Your local host lookups will be done by matching the strings that
you put in your hosts files.
IMHO: "hosts" files could only be used in the network that uses static IP addresses.
In this case neither DHCP client nor NetworkManager should be used, so nothing should touch ``resolve.conf``.
And that means the DNS server could be used.
Sysadmin simply runs DNS server for the "
younetwork.name" domain, adds "A" record for each PC manually, and
then adds "nameserver" and "domain" to the "resolve.conf" on each station.
To rename a machine one can simply change "A" record on DNS and "hostname" on station.
All changes are persistent, because nothing overwrites resolve.conf
Changing name in two places (station and DNS) is easier than changing it on all "hosts" files across your network.