1HOSTNAMECTL(1) hostnamectl HOSTNAMECTL(1)
2
6 hostnamectl - Control the system hostname
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9 hostnamectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}
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12 hostnamectl may be used to query and change the system hostname and
13 related settings.
14 systemd-hostnamed.service(8) and this tool distinguish three different
16 hostnames: the high-level "pretty" hostname which might include all
17 kinds of special characters (e.g. "Lennart's Laptop"), the "static"
18 hostname which is the user-configured hostname (e.g.
19 "lennarts-laptop"), and the transient hostname which is a fallback
20 value received from network configuration (e.g. "node12345678"). If a
21 static hostname is set to a valid value, then the transient hostname is
22 not used.
23 Note that the pretty hostname has little restrictions on the characters
25 and length used, while the static and transient hostnames are limited
26 to the usually accepted characters of Internet domain names, and 64
27 characters at maximum (the latter being a Linux limitation).
28 Use systemd-firstboot(1) to initialize the system hostname for mounted
30 (but not booted) system images.
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33 The following commands are understood:
34 status
36 Show system hostname and related information. If no command is
37 specified, this is the implied default.
38 hostname [NAME]
40 If no argument is given, print the system hostname. If an optional
41 argument NAME is provided then the command changes the system
42 hostname to NAME. By default, this will alter the pretty, the
43 static, and the transient hostname alike; however, if one or more
44 of --static, --transient, --pretty are used, only the selected
45 hostnames are changed. If the pretty hostname is being set, and
46 static or transient are being set as well, the specified hostname
47 will be simplified in regards to the character set used before the
48 latter are updated. This is done by removing special characters and
49 spaces. This ensures that the pretty and the static hostname are
50 always closely related while still following the validity rules of
51 the specific name. This simplification of the hostname string is
52 not done if only the transient and/or static hostnames are set, and
53 the pretty hostname is left untouched.
54 The static and transient hostnames must each be either a single DNS
56 label (a string composed of 7-bit ASCII lower-case characters and
57 no spaces or dots, limited to the format allowed for DNS domain
58 name labels), or a sequence of such labels separated by single dots
59 that forms a valid DNS FQDN. The hostname must be at most 64
60 characters, which is a Linux limitation (DNS allows longer names).
61 icon-name [NAME]
63 If no argument is given, print the icon name of the system. If an
64 optional argument NAME is provided then the command changes the
65 icon name to NAME. The icon name is used by some graphical
66 applications to visualize this host. The icon name should follow
67 the Icon Naming Specification[1].
68 chassis [TYPE]
70 If no argument is given, print the chassis type. If an optional
71 argument TYPE is provided then the command changes the chassis type
72 to TYPE. The chassis type is used by some graphical applications to
73 visualize the host or alter user interaction. Currently, the
74 following chassis types are defined: "desktop", "laptop",
75 "convertible", "server", "tablet", "handset", "watch", "embedded",
76 as well as the special chassis types "vm" and "container" for
77 virtualized systems that lack an immediate physical chassis.
78 deployment [ENVIRONMENT]
80 If no argument is given, print the deployment environment. If an
81 optional argument ENVIRONMENT is provided then the command changes
82 the deployment environment to ENVIRONMENT. Argument ENVIRONMENT
83 must be a single word without any control characters. One of the
84 following is suggested: "development", "integration", "staging",
85 "production".
86 location [LOCATION]
88 If no argument is given, print the location string for the system.
89 If an optional argument LOCATION is provided then the command
90 changes the location string for the system to LOCATION. Argument
91 LOCATION should be a human-friendly, free-form string describing
92 the physical location of the system, if it is known and applicable.
93 This may be as generic as "Berlin, Germany" or as specific as "Left
94 Rack, 2nd Shelf".
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97 The following options are understood:
98 --no-ask-password
100 Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
101 --static, --transient, --pretty
103 If status is invoked (or no explicit command is given) and one of
104 these switches is specified, hostnamectl will print out just this
105 selected hostname.
106 If used with hostname, only the selected hostnames will be updated.
108 When more than one of these switches are specified, all the
109 specified hostnames will be updated.
110 -H, --host=
112 Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username
113 and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
114 optionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, separated by
115 ":", and then a container name, separated by "/", which connects
116 directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will
117 use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container
118 names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses
119 in brackets.
120 -M, --machine=
122 Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to
123 connect to, optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a
124 separating "@" character. If the special string ".host" is used in
125 place of the container name, a connection to the local system is
126 made (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus:
127 "--user --machine=lennart@.host"). If the "@" syntax is not used,
128 the connection is made as root user. If the "@" syntax is used
129 either the left hand side or the right hand side may be omitted
130 (but not both) in which case the local user name and ".host" are
131 implied.
132 -h, --help
134 Print a short help text and exit.
135 --version
137 Print a short version string and exit.
138 --json=MODE
140 Shows output formatted as JSON. Expects one of "short" (for the
141 shortest possible output without any redundant whitespace or line
142 breaks), "pretty" (for a pretty version of the same, with
143 indentation and line breaks) or "off" (to turn off JSON output, the
144 default).
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147 On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
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150 systemd(1), hostname(1), hostname(5), machine-info(5), systemctl(1),
151 systemd-hostnamed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1)
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154 1. Icon Naming Specification
155 https://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html
156systemd 254 HOSTNAMECTL(1)