# hostnamectl

## 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).
    
               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.
    
           **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.
    


## NOTES



            1. Icon Naming Specification
               https://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html
    


* * *