What is hostname?
3 hostname examples
Syntax and Options
Related Commands
What is hostname?
You can view your system name (hostname) or assign a new name to your system using hostname command.
3 hostname Examples
1. View your hostname
hostname command without any argument will return the name of your system.
# hostname ramesh-laptop
2. Change hostname from command line
To change the system name, do the following. Please note that this is only temporary. When you reboot the system, this hostname will not be used.
# hostname ramesh-system # hostname ramesh-system
To change the hostname permanently, modify the /etc/hostname file.
# vi /etc/hostname ramesh-system
3. Change hostname (get name from a file)
Use option -F to specify a filename. The name of the host will be picked-up from this filename and set appropriately.
# cat /home/root/hostname.txt ramesh-desktop # hostname -F /home/root/hostname.txt # hostname ramesh-desktop
Syntax and Options
Syntax:
hostname [-v] [-a] [--alias] [-d] [--domain] [-f] [--fqdn] [-A] [--all-fqdns] [-i] [--ip-address] [-I] [--all-ip-addresses] [--long] [-s] [--short] [-y] [--yp] [--nis] hostname [-v] [-b] [--boot] [-F filename] [--file filename] [hostname] hostname [-v] [-h] [--help] [-V] [--version]
| Short Option | Long Option | Option Description |
|---|---|---|
| -a | –alias | Display the alias name of the host. This is deprecated. |
| -b | –boot | Always set a hostname |
| -d | –domain | Display DNS domain name. It is recommended to use dnsdomainname command for this. |
| -F | –file | Read the host name from a file. Lines that starts with # are comments. |
| -f | –fqdn, –long | Display Fully Qualified Domain Name. i.e FQDN, which is combination of a short host name and the DNS domain name. Unless you are using bind or NIS for host lookups you can change the FQDN and the DNS domain name in the /etc/hosts file. |
| -A | –all-fqdns | Displays all FQDNs. This option enumerates all network addresses of all configured network interfaces, and translates them to DNS domain names. |
| -h | –help | Print help message and exit. |
| -i | –ip-address | Displays network ip address of the host. This depends on name resolution. So, use -I option instead. |
| -I | –all-ip-addresses | Displays all network ip addresses of the host. Displays all configured addresses on all network interfaces. loopback and IPv6 link-local addresses are not displayed. This doesn’t depend on name resolution. |
| -s | –short | Displays short host name. This displays the hostname until the first dot. |
| -V | –version | Print version information on standard output and exit successfully. |
| -v | –verbose | Be verbose |
| -y | –yp, –nis | Displays NIS domain name. You can also set a new NIS domain using this option. |
Related Commands
domainname
ypdomainname
nisdomainname
dnsdomainname