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.
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.
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, separated 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.
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 245 HOSTNAMECTL(1)