/etc/hostname

systemd
Developer Lennart Poettering lennart@poettering.net
hostname 5
hostname Local host name configuration file

`/etc/hostname`

## Description

The `/etc/hostname` file configures the name of the local system that is set during boot, with the sethostname 2 system call. It should contain a single newline-terminated host name string. The host name may be a free-form string up to 64 characters in length, however it is recommended that it consists only of 7bit ASCII lower-case characters and no spaces or dots, and limits itself to the format allowed for DNS domain name labels, even though this is not a strict requirement.

Depending on the operating system other configuration files might be checked for configuration of the host name as well, however only as fallback.

You may use hostnamectl 1 to change the value of this file from the command line.

## History

The simple configuration file format of `/etc/hostname` originates from Debian GNU/Linux.

## See Also

systemd 1, sethostname 2, hostname 1, hostname 7, machine-id 5, machine-info 5, hostnamectl 1, systemd-hostnamed.service 8