Linux / Unix Command: gethostname

Command Library

NAME

gethostname, sethostname - get/set host name  

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int gethostname(char *name, size_t len);
int sethostname(const char *name, size_t len);  

DESCRIPTION

These functions are used to access or to change the host name of the current processor. The gethostname() function returns a NUL-terminated hostname (set earlier by sethostname()) in the array name that has a length of len bytes. In case the NUL-terminated hostname does not fit, no error is returned, but the hostname is truncated. It is unspecified whether the truncated hostname will be NUL-terminated.  

RETURN VALUE

On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.  

ERRORS

EINVAL

len is negative or, for sethostname, len is larger than the maximum allowed size, or, for gethostname on Linux/i386, len is smaller than the actual size. (In this last case glibc 2.1 uses ENAMETOOLONG.)

EPERM

For sethostname, the caller was not the superuser.

EFAULT

name is an invalid address.

 

CONFORMING TO

SVr4, 4.4BSD (this function first appeared in 4.2BSD). POSIX 1003.1-2001 specifies gethostname but not sethostname.  

SEE ALSO

getdomainname(2), setdomainname(2), uname(2)

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