NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | FILES | AUTHOR | COLOPHON

HOSTNAME(1)          Linux System Administrator's Manual         HOSTNAME(1)

NAME         top

       hostname - show or set the system's host name
       dnsdomainname - show the system's DNS domain name
       domainname - show or set the system's NIS/YP domain name
       nisdomainname - show or set system's NIS/YP domain name
       nodename - show or set the system's DECnet node name
       ypdomainname - show or set the system's NIS/YP domain name

SYNOPSIS         top

       hostname [-v] [-s|--short]
       hostname [-v] [-a|--alias] [-d|--domain] [-f|--fqdn|--long]
       [-i|--ip-address]
       hostname [-v] [-y|--yp|--nis] [-n|--node]
       hostname [-v] [-F filename|--file filename] [newname]
       domainname [-v] [-F filename|--file filename] [newname]
       nodename [-v] [-F filename|--file filename] [newname]
       hostname [-v|--verbose] [-h|--help] [-V|--version]
       dnsdomainname [-v]
       nisdomainname [-v]
       ypdomainname [-v]

DESCRIPTION         top

       Hostname is the program that is used to either set or display the
       current host, domain or node name of the system.  These names are
       used by many of the networking programs to identify the machine. The
       domain name is also used by NIS/YP.
   GET NAME
       When called without any arguments, the program displays the current
       names:
       hostname will print the name of the system as returned by the
       gethostname(2) function.
       domainname, nisdomainname, ypdomainname will print the name of the
       system as returned by the getdomainname(2) function. This is also
       known as the YP/NIS domain name of the system.
       nodename will print the DECnet node name of the system as returned by
       the getnodename(2) function.
       dnsdomainname will print the domain part of the FQDN (Fully Qualified
       Domain Name). The complete FQDN of the system is returned with
       hostname --fqdn.
   SET NAME
       When called with one argument or with the --file option, the commands
       set the host name, the NIS/YP domain name or the node name.
       Note, that only the super-user can change the names.
       It is not possible to set the FQDN or the DNS domain name with the
       dnsdomainname command (see THE FQDN below).
       The host name is usually set once at system startup by reading the
       contents of a file which contains the host name, e.g.
       /etc/hostname).
   THE FQDN
       You can't change the FQDN (as returned by hostname --fqdn) or the DNS
       domain name (as returned by dnsdomainname) with this command. The
       FQDN of the system is the name that the resolver(3) returns for the
       host name.
       Technically: The FQDN is the canonical name returned by
       gethostbyname2(2) when resolving the result of the gethostname(2)
       name. The DNS domain name is the part after the first dot.
       Therefore it depends on the configuration (usually in /etc/host.conf)
       how you can change it. If hosts is the first lookup method, you can
       change the FQDN in /etc/hosts.

OPTIONS         top

       -a, --alias
              Display the alias name of the host (if used).
       -d, --domain
              Display the name of the DNS domain (this is the FQDN without
              the segment up to the first dot). This is equivalent to using
              the dnsdomainname command.
       -F, --file filename
              Read the new host name from the specified file. Comments
              (lines starting with a `#') are ignored.
       -f, --fqdn, --long
              Display the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name). A FQDN
              consists of name including the DNS domain.
       -h, --help
              Print a usage message and exit.
       -i, --ip-address
              Display the IP address(es) of the host.
       -n, --node
              Display the DECnet node name. If a parameter is given (or
              --file name ) the root can also set a new node name.
       -s, --short
              Display the short host name. This is the host name cut at the
              first dot.
       -V, --version
              Print version information on standard output and exit
              successfully.
       -v, --verbose
              Be verbose and tell what's going on.
       -y, --yp, --nis
              Display the NIS domain name. If a parameter is given (or
              --file name ) then root can also set a new NIS domain.

FILES         top

       /etc/hostname /etc/hosts /etc/host.conf

AUTHOR         top

       Peter Tobias, <tobias@et-inf.fho-emden.de>
       Bernd Eckenfels, <net-tools@lina.inka.de> (NIS and manpage).
       Steve Whitehouse, <SteveW@ACM.org> (DECnet support and manpage).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the net-tools (networking utilities) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://net-tools.sourceforge.net/⟩.  If you have a bug report for
       this manual page, see ⟨http://net-tools.sourceforge.net/⟩.  This page
       was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository 
       ⟨git://git.code.sf.net/p/net-tools/code⟩ on 2017-07-05.  If you dis‐
       cover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or
       you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail
       to man-pages@man7.org
net-tools                        2013-08-29                      HOSTNAME(1)

Pages that refer to this page: hostnamectl(1)gethostname(2)cupsd.conf(5)hostname(5)hosts(5)proc(5)