xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/gethostname.3 (revision 63a938566d524836885917d95bd491aa4400b181)
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28.\"     @(#)gethostname.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd August 18, 2003
32.Dt GETHOSTNAME 3
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm gethostname ,
36.Nm sethostname
37.Nd get/set name of current host
38.Sh LIBRARY
39.Lb libc
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In unistd.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn gethostname "char *name" "size_t namelen"
44.Ft int
45.Fn sethostname "const char *name" "int namelen"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn gethostname
49function
50returns the standard host name for the current processor, as
51previously set by
52.Fn sethostname .
53The
54.Fa namelen
55argument
56specifies the size of the
57.Fa name
58array.
59The returned name is null-terminated unless insufficient space is provided.
60.Pp
61The
62.Fn sethostname
63function
64sets the name of the host machine to be
65.Fa name ,
66which has length
67.Fa namelen .
68This call is restricted to the super-user and
69is normally used only when the system is bootstrapped.
70.Pp
71Host names are limited to
72.Brq Dv HOST_NAME_MAX
73characters, not including the trailing null, currently 255.
74.Sh RETURN VALUES
75.Rv -std
76.Sh ERRORS
77The following errors may be returned by these calls:
78.Bl -tag -width Er
79.It Bq Er EFAULT
80The
81.Fa name
82or
83.Fa namelen
84argument gave an
85invalid address.
86.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
87The current host name is longer than
88.Fa namelen .
89(For
90.Fn gethostname
91only.)
92.It Bq Er EPERM
93The caller tried to set the host name and was not the super-user.
94.El
95.Sh SEE ALSO
96.Xr sysconf 3 ,
97.Xr sysctl 3
98.Sh STANDARDS
99The
100.Fn gethostname
101function conforms to
102.St -p1003.1-2001 .
103Callers should be aware that
104.Brq Dv HOST_NAME_MAX
105may be variable or infinite, but is guaranteed to be no less than
106.Brq Dv _POSIX_HOST_NAME_MAX .
107On older systems, this limit was defined in the non-standard header
108.In sys/param.h
109as
110.Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN ,
111and counted the terminating null.
112The
113.Fn sethostname
114function and the error returns for
115.Fn gethostname
116are not standardized.
117.Sh HISTORY
118The
119.Fn gethostname
120function appeared in
121.Bx 4.2 .
122The
123.Fa namelen
124argument to
125.Fn gethostname
126was changed to
127.Vt size_t
128in
129.Fx 5.2
130for alignment with
131.St -p1003.1-2001 .
132