GETHOSTNAME

Section: System Calls (2)
Updated: May 22, 1986
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NAME

gethostname, sethostname - get/set name of current host

SYNOPSIS

gethostname(name, namelen)
char *name;
int namelen;

sethostname(name, namelen)
char *name;
int namelen;

DESCRIPTION

Gethostname returns the standard host name for the current processor, as previously set by sethostname. The parameter namelen specifies the size of the name array. The returned name is null-terminated unless insufficient space is provided.

Sethostname sets the name of the host machine to be name, which has length namelen. This call is restricted to the super-user and is normally used only when the system is bootstrapped.

RETURN VALUE

If the call succeeds a value of 0 is returned. If the call fails, then a value of -1 is returned and an error code is placed in the global location errno.

ERRORS

The following errors may be returned by these calls:

[EFAULT]: The name or namelen parameter gave an invalid address.
[EPERM]: The caller tried to set the hostname and was not the super-user.

BUGS

Host names are limited to MAXHOSTNAMELEN (from <sys/param.h>) characters, currently 64.

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Time: 04:51:40 GMT, January 31, 2023