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.
systemd-hostnamed.service(8) and this tool distinguish 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 the user-configured hostname (e.g. "lennarts-laptop"),
and the transient hostname which is a fallback value received from
network configuration (e.g. "node12345678"). If a static hostname is set
to a valid value, 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).
Use systemd-firstboot(1) to initialize the system hostname for mounted
(but not booted) system images.
COMMANDS
The following commands are understood:
status
Show system hostname and related information. If no command is
specified, this is the implied default.
Added in version 195.
hostname [NAME]
If no argument is given, print the system hostname. If an optional
argument NAME is provided then the command changes 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 hostnames are set, and the
pretty hostname is left untouched.
The static and transient hostnames must each be either a single DNS
label (a string composed of 7-bit ASCII lower-case characters and no
spaces or dots, limited to the format allowed for DNS domain name
labels), or a sequence of such labels separated by single dots that
forms a valid DNS FQDN. The hostname must be at most 64 characters,
which is a Linux limitation (DNS allows longer names).
Added in version 249.
icon-name [NAME]
If no argument is given, print the icon name of the system. If an
optional argument NAME is provided then the command changes the 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].
Added in version 249.
chassis [TYPE]
If no argument is given, print the chassis type. If an optional
argument TYPE is provided then the command changes 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.
Added in version 249.
deployment [ENVIRONMENT]
If no argument is given, print the deployment environment. If an
optional argument ENVIRONMENT is provided then the command changes
the deployment environment to ENVIRONMENT. Argument ENVIRONMENT must
be a single word without any control characters. One of the
following is suggested: "development", "integration", "staging",
"production".
Added in version 249.
location [LOCATION]
If no argument is given, print the location string for the system.
If an optional argument LOCATION is provided then the command
changes the location string for the system to LOCATION. Argument
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".
Added in version 249.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--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 hostname, only the selected hostnames will be updated.
When more than one of these switches are specified, all the
specified hostnames will be updated.
Added in version 195.
-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, optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a
separating "@" character. If the special string ".host" is used in
place of the container name, a connection to the local system is
made (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus:
"--user --machine=lennart@.host"). If the "@" syntax is not used,
the connection is made as root user. If the "@" syntax is used
either the left hand side or the right hand side may be omitted (but
not both) in which case the local user name and ".host" are implied.
--no-ask-password
Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
--json=MODE
Shows output formatted as JSON. Expects one of "short" (for the
shortest possible output without any redundant whitespace or line
breaks), "pretty" (for a pretty version of the same, with
indentation and line breaks) or "off" (to turn off JSON output, the
default).
-j
Equivalent to --json=pretty if running on a terminal, and
--json=short otherwise.
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
https://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html
systemd 257.9 HOSTNAMECTL(1)
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