hostname - show or set the system's host name
domainname - show or set the system's NIS/YP domain name
dnsdomainname - show the system's DNS domain name
nisdomainname - show or set system's NIS/YP domain name
ypdomainname - show or set the system's NIS/YP domain name
SYNOPSIS
hostname
hostname
domainname
nodename
hostname
dnsdomainname nisdomainname ypdomainname
DESCRIPTION
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.
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 in
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 or
/etc/init.d/boot (normally 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 name
gethostbyname(2) returns for the host name returned by
gethostname(2) . 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. Usually (if the hosts file is parsed before DNS or
NIS) you can change it in
/etc/hosts .
OPTIONS
"-a, --alias"
Display the alias name of the host (if used).
"-d, --domain"
Display the name of the DNS domain. Don't use the command
domainname to get the DNS domain name because it will show the NIS domain name and
not the DNS domain name. Use
dnsdomainname instead.
"-F, --file filename"
Read the 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 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 (which is
part of the FQDN) in the /etc/hosts file.
"-h, --help"
Print a usage message and exit.
"-i, --ip-address"
Display the IP address(es) of the host.
"-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
/etc/hosts /etc/sysconfig/network
NOTE
Note that hostname doesn't change anything permanently. After reboot
original names from /etc/hosts are used again.
AUTHOR
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).
