1HOSTNAMECTL(1) hostnamectl HOSTNAMECTL(1)
2
6 hostnamectl - Control the system hostname
7
9 hostnamectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}
10
12 hostnamectl may be used to query and change the system hostname and
13 related settings.
14 This tool distinguishes three different hostnames: the high-level
16 "pretty" hostname which might include all kinds of special characters
17 (e.g. "Lennart's Laptop"), the static hostname which is used to
18 initialize the kernel hostname at boot (e.g. "lennarts-laptop"), and
19 the transient hostname which is a default received from network
20 configuration. If a static hostname is set, and is valid (something
21 other than localhost), then the transient hostname is not used.
22 Note that the pretty hostname has little restrictions on the characters
24 used, while the static and transient hostnames are limited to the
25 usually accepted characters of Internet domain names.
26 The static hostname is stored in /etc/hostname, see hostname(5) for
28 more information. The pretty hostname, chassis type, and icon name are
29 stored in /etc/machine-info, see machine-info(5).
30 Use systemd-firstboot(1) to initialize the system host name for mounted
32 (but not booted) system images.
33
35 The following options are understood:
36 --no-ask-password
38 Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
39 --static, --transient, --pretty
41 If status is used (or no explicit command is given) and one of
42 those fields is given, hostnamectl will print out just this
43 selected hostname.
44 If used with set-hostname, only the selected hostname(s) will be
46 updated. When more than one of those options is used, all the
47 specified hostnames will be updated.
48 -H, --host=
50 Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username
51 and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
52 optionally be suffixed by a container name, separated by ":", which
53 connects directly to a specific container on the specified host.
54 This will use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance.
55 Container names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST.
56 -M, --machine=
58 Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to
59 connect to.
60 -h, --help
62 Print a short help text and exit.
63 --version
65 Print a short version string and exit.
66 The following commands are understood:
68 status
70 Show current system hostname and related information.
71 set-hostname NAME
73 Set the system hostname to NAME. By default, this will alter the
74 pretty, the static, and the transient hostname alike; however, if
75 one or more of --static, --transient, --pretty are used, only the
76 selected hostnames are changed. If the pretty hostname is being
77 set, and static or transient are being set as well, the specified
78 hostname will be simplified in regards to the character set used
79 before the latter are updated. This is done by replacing spaces
80 with "-" and removing special characters. This ensures that the
81 pretty and the static hostname are always closely related while
82 still following the validity rules of the specific name. This
83 simplification of the hostname string is not done if only the
84 transient and/or static host names are set, and the pretty host
85 name is left untouched.
86 Pass the empty string "" as the hostname to reset the selected
88 hostnames to their default (usually "localhost").
89 set-icon-name NAME
91 Set the system icon name to NAME. The icon name is used by some
92 graphical applications to visualize this host. The icon name should
93 follow the Icon Naming Specification[1].
94 Pass an empty string to reset the icon name to the default value,
96 which is determined from chassis type (see below) and possibly
97 other parameters.
98 set-chassis TYPE
100 Set the chassis type to TYPE. The chassis type is used by some
101 graphical applications to visualize the host or alter user
102 interaction. Currently, the following chassis types are defined:
103 "desktop", "laptop", "server", "tablet", "handset", "watch",
104 "embedded", as well as the special chassis types "vm" and
105 "container" for virtualized systems that lack an immediate physical
106 chassis.
107 Pass an empty string to reset the chassis type to the default value
109 which is determined from the firmware and possibly other
110 parameters.
111 set-deployment ENVIRONMENT
113 Set the deployment environment description. ENVIRONMENT must be a
114 single word without any control characters. One of the following is
115 suggested: "development", "integration", "staging", "production".
116 Pass an empty string to reset to the default empty value.
118 set-location LOCATION
120 Set the location string for the system, if it is known. LOCATION
121 should be a human-friendly, free-form string describing the
122 physical location of the system, if it is known and applicable.
123 This may be as generic as "Berlin, Germany" or as specific as "Left
124 Rack, 2nd Shelf".
125 Pass an empty string to reset to the default empty value.
127
129 On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
130
132 systemd(1), hostname(1), hostname(5), machine-info(5), systemctl(1),
133 systemd-hostnamed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1)
134
136 1. Icon Naming Specification
137 http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html
138systemd 219 HOSTNAMECTL(1)