hostnamectl

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Short description:

The manual page and help for the hostnamectl linux command. Use the hostnamectl command to retrieve or change the hostname of the system.

 

 

Man page output

man hostnamectl
HOSTNAMECTL(1)                                          hostnamectl                                         HOSTNAMECTL(1)

NAME
       hostnamectl - Control the system hostname

SYNOPSIS
       hostnamectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}

DESCRIPTION
       hostnamectl may be used to query and change the system hostname and related settings.

       This tool distinguishes three different hostnames: the high-level "pretty" hostname which might include all kinds
       of special characters (e.g. "Lennart's Laptop"), the static hostname which is used to initialize the kernel
       hostname at boot (e.g. "lennarts-laptop"), and the transient hostname which is a fallback value received from
       network configuration. If a static hostname is set, and is valid (something other than localhost), then the
       transient hostname is not used.

       Note that the pretty hostname has little restrictions on the characters and length used, while the static and
       transient hostnames are limited to the usually accepted characters of Internet domain names, and 64 characters at
       maximum (the latter being a Linux limitation).

       The static hostname is stored in /etc/hostname, see hostname(5) for more information. The pretty hostname, chassis
       type, and icon name are stored in /etc/machine-info, see machine-info(5).

       Use systemd-firstboot(1) to initialize the system host name for mounted (but not booted) system images.

OPTIONS
       The following options are understood:

       --no-ask-password
           Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.

       --static, --transient, --pretty
           If status is invoked (or no explicit command is given) and one of these switches is specified, hostnamectl will
           print out just this selected hostname.

           If used with set-hostname, only the selected hostname(s) will be updated. When more than one of these switches
           are specified, all the specified hostnames will be updated.

       -H, --host=
           Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username and hostname separated by "@", to connect to.
           The hostname may optionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, seperated by ":", and then a container
           name, separated by "/", which connects directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will use
           SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST.
           Put IPv6 addresses in brackets.

       -M, --machine=
           Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to connect to.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

COMMANDS
       The following commands are understood:

       status
           Show current system hostname and related information. If no command is specified, this is the implied default.

       set-hostname NAME
           Set the system hostname to NAME. By default, this will alter the pretty, the static, and the transient hostname
           alike; however, if one or more of --static, --transient, --pretty are used, only the selected hostnames are
           changed. If the pretty hostname is being set, and static or transient are being set as well, the specified
           hostname will be simplified in regards to the character set used before the latter are updated. This is done by
           removing special characters and spaces. This ensures that the pretty and the static hostname are always closely
           related while still following the validity rules of the specific name. This simplification of the hostname
           string is not done if only the transient and/or static host names are set, and the pretty host name is left
           untouched.

           Pass the empty string "" as the hostname to reset the selected hostnames to their default (usually
           "localhost").

       set-icon-name NAME
           Set the system icon name to NAME. The icon name is used by some graphical applications to visualize this host.
           The icon name should follow the Icon Naming Specification[1].

           Pass an empty string to reset the icon name to the default value, which is determined from chassis type (see
           below) and possibly other parameters.

       set-chassis TYPE
           Set the chassis type to TYPE. The chassis type is used by some graphical applications to visualize the host or
           alter user interaction. Currently, the following chassis types are defined: "desktop", "laptop", "convertible",
           "server", "tablet", "handset", "watch", "embedded", as well as the special chassis types "vm" and "container"
           for virtualized systems that lack an immediate physical chassis.

           Pass an empty string to reset the chassis type to the default value which is determined from the firmware and
           possibly other parameters.

       set-deployment ENVIRONMENT
           Set the deployment environment description.  ENVIRONMENT must be a single word without any control characters.
           One of the following is suggested: "development", "integration", "staging", "production".

           Pass an empty string to reset to the default empty value.

       set-location LOCATION
           Set the location string for the system, if it is known.  LOCATION should be a human-friendly, free-form string
           describing the physical location of the system, if it is known and applicable. This may be as generic as
           "Berlin, Germany" or as specific as "Left Rack, 2nd Shelf".

           Pass an empty string to reset to the default empty value.

EXIT STATUS
       On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.

SEE ALSO
       systemd(1), hostname(1), hostname(5), machine-info(5), systemctl(1), systemd-hostnamed.service(8), systemd-
       firstboot(1)

NOTES
        1. Icon Naming Specification
           http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html

systemd 241                                                                                                 HOSTNAMECTL(1)

 

 

Help output

hostnamectl --help
hostnamectl [OPTIONS...] COMMAND ...

Query or change system hostname.

  -h --help              Show this help
     --version           Show package version
     --no-ask-password   Do not prompt for password
  -H --host=[USER@]HOST  Operate on remote host
  -M --machine=CONTAINER Operate on local container
     --transient         Only set transient hostname
     --static            Only set static hostname
     --pretty            Only set pretty hostname

Commands:
  status                 Show current hostname settings
  set-hostname NAME      Set system hostname
  set-icon-name NAME     Set icon name for host
  set-chassis NAME       Set chassis type for host
  set-deployment NAME    Set deployment environment for host
  set-location NAME      Set location for host

See the hostnamectl(1) man page for details.

 

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