diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ee4145e132d..0159110856a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ Ansible Changes By Release
 * minor caching logic added to inventory to reduce hammering of inventory scripts.
 * ./hacking/test-module now supports options like ansible takes and has a debugger mode
 * playbook is now colorized, set ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR=1 if you do not like this, does not colorize if not a TTY
+* support ranges of hosts in the host file
 
 0.5 "Amsterdam" ------- July 04, 2012
 
diff --git a/docs/man/man1/ansible-playbook.1 b/docs/man/man1/ansible-playbook.1
index 157ba08cb8f..3a585b25bc7 100644
--- a/docs/man/man1/ansible-playbook.1
+++ b/docs/man/man1/ansible-playbook.1
@@ -2,12 +2,12 @@
 .\"     Title: ansible-playbook
 .\"    Author: [see the "AUTHOR" section]
 .\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.75.2 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
-.\"      Date: 07/04/2012
+.\"      Date: 07/24/2012
 .\"    Manual: System administration commands
 .\"    Source: Ansible 0.6
 .\"  Language: English
 .\"
-.TH "ANSIBLE\-PLAYBOOK" "1" "07/04/2012" "Ansible 0\&.6" "System administration commands"
+.TH "ANSIBLE\-PLAYBOOK" "1" "07/24/2012" "Ansible 0\&.6" "System administration commands"
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
 .\" * set default formatting
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/docs/man/man1/ansible.1 b/docs/man/man1/ansible.1
index d785f7c242c..013322a1bd7 100644
--- a/docs/man/man1/ansible.1
+++ b/docs/man/man1/ansible.1
@@ -2,12 +2,12 @@
 .\"     Title: ansible
 .\"    Author: [see the "AUTHOR" section]
 .\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.75.2 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
-.\"      Date: 07/04/2012
+.\"      Date: 07/24/2012
 .\"    Manual: System administration commands
 .\"    Source: Ansible 0.6
 .\"  Language: English
 .\"
-.TH "ANSIBLE" "1" "07/04/2012" "Ansible 0\&.6" "System administration commands"
+.TH "ANSIBLE" "1" "07/24/2012" "Ansible 0\&.6" "System administration commands"
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
 .\" * set default formatting
 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -140,19 +140,9 @@ Connection type to use\&. Possible options are
 .RE
 .SH "INVENTORY"
 .sp
-Ansible stores the hosts it can potentially operate on in an inventory
-file\&. The syntax is one host per line\&. Optionally, ansible can use a
-line of the form base[beg:end]tail to define a set of hosts, where
-[beg:end] defines a numerical range. If 'beg' is left out, it
-defaults to 0\&.  An example: mail[1:6].example.com, where 'head'
-is 'mail', 'beg' is 1, 'end' is 6, and 'tail' is '.example.com'\&. In
-addition, 'beg' can be a a string padded with zero(s) to the left. If so
-provided, it acts as a formatting hint during hostname expansion. The usage
-must be confirmed by having an 'end' that has the same length as 'beg',
-else an exception is raised. An example: mail[001:003].example.com is to be
-expanded to mail001.example.com, mail002.example.com, and
-mail003.example.com\&. Groups headers are allowed and are included on their
-own line, enclosed in square brackets\&.
+Ansible stores the hosts it can potentially operate on in an inventory file\&. The syntax is one host per line\&. Groups headers are allowed and are included on their own line, enclosed in square brackets that start the line\&.
+.sp
+Ranges of hosts are also supported\&. For more information and additional options, see the documentation on http://ansible\&.github\&.com/\&.
 .SH "FILES"
 .sp
 /etc/ansible/hosts \(em Default inventory file
diff --git a/docs/man/man1/ansible.1.asciidoc.in b/docs/man/man1/ansible.1.asciidoc.in
index 794844fcebe..2e6f8bbb451 100644
--- a/docs/man/man1/ansible.1.asciidoc.in
+++ b/docs/man/man1/ansible.1.asciidoc.in
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ A name of a group in the inventory file, a shell-like glob selecting
 hosts in inventory file, or any combination of the two separated by
 semicolons.
 
-
 OPTIONS
 -------
 
@@ -112,7 +111,11 @@ INVENTORY
 
 Ansible stores the hosts it can potentially operate on in an inventory
 file. The syntax is one host per line.  Groups headers are allowed and
-are included on their own line, enclosed in square brackets.
+are included on their own line, enclosed in square brackets that
+start the line.
+
+Ranges of hosts are also supported.  For more information and
+additional options, see the documentation on http://ansible.github.com/.
 
 FILES
 -----
diff --git a/examples/hosts b/examples/hosts
index a351674ac90..ce4cbb7caa4 100644
--- a/examples/hosts
+++ b/examples/hosts
@@ -7,39 +7,38 @@
 #   - Groups of hosts are delimited by [header] elements
 #   - You can enter hostnames or ip addresses
 #   - A hostname/ip can be a member of multiple groups
-#
+
 # Ex 1: Ungrouped hosts, specify before any group headers.
-green.bikeshed.org
-blue.bikeshed.org
-red.bikeshed.org
-bikeshed.org
-bastion.secure.bikeshed.org
+
+green.example.com
+blue.example.com
 192.168.100.1
 192.168.100.10
-# An example for host expansion that uses the default 'beg' and an 'end'
-mail[:5].example.com
 
 # Ex 2: A collection of hosts belonging to the 'webservers' group
+
 [webservers]
-www01.bikeshed.org
-www02.bikeshed.org
-wheel.colors.com
+alpha.example.org
+beta.example.org
 192.168.1.100
 192.168.1.110
-# Your personal website also runs a webserver:
-myserver.com
-# An example for host expansion that uses both a 'beg' and an 'end', with
-# the 'beg' acting as a formatting hint during host name expansion
+
+# If you have multiple hosts following a pattern you can specify
+# them like this:
+
 www[001:006].example.com
 
 # Ex 3: A collection of database servers in the 'dbservers' group
+
 [dbservers]
+
 db01.intranet.mydomain.net
-10.25.1.56
 db02.intranet.mydomain.net
+10.25.1.56
 10.25.1.57
-# Perhaps you serve a db off your personal server too:
-myserver.com
-# An example for host expansion that uses a regular 'beg' and a regular
-# 'end'
+
+# Here's another example of host ranges, this time there are no
+# leading 0s:
+
 db-[99:101]-node.example.com
+
diff --git a/lib/ansible/inventory/expand_hosts.py b/lib/ansible/inventory/expand_hosts.py
index e7a5ff37f61..ecccc1985ff 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/inventory/expand_hosts.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/inventory/expand_hosts.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with this software.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 #
+
 '''
 This module is for enhancing ansible's inventory parsing capability such
 that it can deal with hostnames specified using a simple pattern in the
@@ -69,13 +70,13 @@ def expand_hostname_range(line = None):
         (head, nrange, tail) = line.replace('[','|').replace(']','|').split('|')
         bounds = nrange.split(":")
         if len(bounds) != 2:
-            raise ValueError("host range incorrectly specified!")
+            raise ValueError("host range incorrectly specified")
         beg = bounds[0]
         end = bounds[1]
         if not beg:
             beg = "0"
         if not end:
-            raise ValueError("host range end value missing!")
+            raise ValueError("host range end value missing")
         if beg[0] == '0' and len(beg) > 1:
             rlen = len(beg) # range length formatting hint
         else:
@@ -83,7 +84,7 @@ def expand_hostname_range(line = None):
         if rlen > 1 and rlen != len(end):
             raise ValueError("host range format incorrectly specified!")
                 
-        for _ in range(int(beg), int(end)):
+        for _ in range(int(beg), int(end)+1):
             if rlen:
                 rseq = str(_).zfill(rlen) # range sequence
             else:
diff --git a/test/simple_hosts b/test/simple_hosts
index 8f1bd55a5f4..c774afd4b40 100644
--- a/test/simple_hosts
+++ b/test/simple_hosts
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 jupiter
 saturn
-thrudgelmir[:6]
+thrudgelmir[:5]
 
 [greek]
 zeus
 hera:3000
 poseidon
-cerberus[001:004]
-cottus[99:101]
+cerberus[001:003]
+cottus[99:100]
 
 [norse]
 thor