HOSTNAME(1)

NAME
hostname - show or set the system's host name
domainname - show or set the system's domain name

SYNOPSIS
hostname [-f] [name]
domainname [name]

DESCRIPTION
Hostname is the program that is used to either set or display the current host or domain name of the system. This name is used by many of the networking programs to identify the machine.

When called without any arguments, the program displays the current name. Depending on whether the program was called as hostname or domainname , either the system's hostname (short form) or domainname (suffix) is displayed.

When called with arguments, the program will set the value of either the domain or host name to the value specified. This usually is done only once, at system startup time, by the /etc/rc.d/rc.net1 configuration script.

Note, that only the super-user can change the values of these names.

OPTIONS

-f  Forces the program to look up the official name of the given hostname in the /etc/hosts database of the system, rather than using the given name itself. This is useful for using short names, while actually setting the "Fully Qualified Domain Name" (FQDN) of a machine. This option is only valid when the program is called as hostname , as it is not really useful to look up a domain name...

BUGS
None so far.

AUTHOR
Fred N. van Kempen, <waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org>