| HOSTNAMECTL(1) | hostnamectl | HOSTNAMECTL(1) |
.SH "NAME" hostnamectl - Control the system hostname
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP 288u
hostnamectl
[OPTIONS...]
{COMMAND}
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP hostnamectl may be used to query and change the system hostname
and related settings.
.PP 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.
.PP 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).
.PP Use systemd-firstboot(1) to initialize the system hostname for
mounted (but not booted) system images.
.SH "COMMANDS"
.PP The following commands are understood:
.PP status
Show system hostname and related information. If no command is specified,
this is the implied default.
Added in version 195.
.RE
.PP 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).
If the question mark character ? appears in the hostname, it is automatically
substituted by a hexadecimal character derived from the machine-id(5)
when applied, securely and deterministically by cryptographic hashing.
Example: foobar-????-???? will automatically expand to foobar-92a9-061c or
similar, depending on the local machine ID.
Added in version 249.
.RE
.PP 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.
.RE
.PP 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.
.RE
.PP 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.
.RE
.PP 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.
.RE
.PP tags [TAG...]
If no argument is given, print the machine tags currently configured, as a
colon-separated list. If one or more TAG arguments are provided then
the command replaces the configured tags with the specified ones. Each
argument may itself be a colon-separated list of tags, so that the tags may
be specified either as multiple arguments or as a single colon-separated
argument, or any combination thereof. Duplicate tags are removed and the
resulting list is sorted before being stored. To remove all tags, invoke the
command with a single empty string argument.
Alternatively, each argument may be prefixed with + or - to incrementally
update the configured tags rather than replacing them: an argument prefixed
with + adds all of its (colon-separated) tags to the list, one prefixed with
- removes them. For example, hostnamectl tags +foo:bar -quux:ooo adds
the tags foo and bar and removes quux and ooo. The prefix applies to the
whole argument, i.e. to every tag listed within it. Prefixed and unprefixed
arguments may not be combined in a single invocation.
Machine tags are short labels that may be used to classify and group machines
for management purposes, for example to identify the role a machine plays in
a deployment, the fleet or organizational unit it belongs to, or any other
administrator-defined attribute. Each individual tag must be 1...255
characters long and consist only of ASCII alphanumeric characters, -, . and
=. A tag may optionally be parameterized with a value, in the form
key=value, in which case the same key may not be assigned more
than one distinct value. The tags are stored in the TAGS= field of
/etc/machine-info; see machine-info(5) for details. They may also be
matched against with the
ConditionMachineTag=/AssertMachineTag= unit settings, see
systemd.unit(5).
Added in version 261.
.RE
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP The following options are understood:
.PP --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.
This selection does not apply to JSON output: with --json=,
status always prints the full status object.
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.
.RE
.PP -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.
.RE
.PP -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.
.RE
.PP --no-ask-password
Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
.RE
.PP -h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
.RE
.PP --version
Print a short version string and exit.
.RE
.PP --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).
.RE
.PP -j
Equivalent to --json=pretty if running on a terminal, and
--json=short otherwise.
.RE
.SH "EXIT STATUS"
.PP On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP systemd(1), hostname(1), hostname(5),
machine-info(5), systemctl(1),
systemd-hostnamed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1)
NOTES
- 1.
- Icon Naming Specification
| systemd 262.2 |