hostnamectl

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.

       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).

       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].

       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.

       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".

       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".

OPTIONS
       The following options are understood:

       --no-ask-password
           Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.

       --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 set-hostname, only the selected hostname(s) will be
           updated. When more than one of these switches are specified, all
           the specified hostnames will be updated.

       -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.

       -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).

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
           http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html

systemd 249                                                     HOSTNAMECTL(1)