Help uninstalling mkcert

[digicoffey]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me uninstall mkcert properly?

I installed mkcert using the following commands:

brew install mkcert
mkcert -install
mkcert 0.0.0.0 localhost 127.0.0.1 ::1

When I ran these commands, my /etc/hosts file had some entries:

Example

#127.0.0.1 my.example.com
127.0.0.1 my.second.example.com

And I ran my local project like so:

npx http-server -p 8030 -S -C cert.pem ./dist

I eventually uninstalled mkcert like so:

brew uninstall mkcert
mkcert -uninstall

And since I have done this, I have not been able to access my.second.example.com when I run my project locally, ie

yarn start:dev

Instead I get the message This site can't be reached. my.second.example.com refused to connect.

I've clearly missed a step, presumably around this command mkcert 0.0.0.0 localhost 127.0.0.1 ::1, and would appreciate any guidance you could offer.

Thanks very much

[tigran-sargsyan-w]

The important thing here is that this command:

mkcert 0.0.0.0 localhost 127.0.0.1 ::1

does not modify /etc/hosts, configure DNS, or start a web server.

It only generates a certificate containing those names/IP addresses.

Also:

refused to connect

is not normally a certificate-trust error.

A TLS trust problem happens after a TCP connection has been established and usually gives you a certificate/privacy warning.

ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED generally means nothing is listening at the IP/port the browser is trying to connect to.

I would check these separately.

First:

grep 'my.second.example.com' /etc/hosts

You still need something like:

127.0.0.1 my.second.example.com

if you rely on /etc/hosts for local resolution.

Then verify that your development server is actually listening:

lsof -nP -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN

or specifically for the old port:

lsof -nP -iTCP:8030 -sTCP:LISTEN

and test it directly:

curl -v http://127.0.0.1:8030/

mkcert -uninstall removes the local CA from the trust stores. It does not remove /etc/hosts entries and it does not control whether your application listens on a TCP port.

Also note that your old command:

npx http-server -p 8030 -S -C cert.pem ./dist

explicitly started an HTTPS server using the certificate.

If yarn start:dev starts a different server, port, bind address or HTTP/HTTPS mode, the old URL may simply no longer point to a listening service.

So I would debug this in this order:

DNS/hosts -> listening port -> HTTP/HTTPS -> certificate trust

rather than reinstalling mkcert first.