xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/gethostname.3 (revision 7660b554bc59a07be0431c17e0e33815818baa69)
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32.\"     @(#)gethostname.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd August 18, 2003
36.Dt GETHOSTNAME 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm gethostname ,
40.Nm sethostname
41.Nd get/set name of current host
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In unistd.h
46.Ft int
47.Fn gethostname "char *name" "size_t namelen"
48.Ft int
49.Fn sethostname "const char *name" "int namelen"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Fn gethostname
53function
54returns the standard host name for the current processor, as
55previously set by
56.Fn sethostname .
57The
58.Fa namelen
59argument
60specifies the size of the
61.Fa name
62array.
63The returned name is null-terminated unless insufficient space is provided.
64.Pp
65The
66.Fn sethostname
67function
68sets the name of the host machine to be
69.Fa name ,
70which has length
71.Fa namelen .
72This call is restricted to the super-user and
73is normally used only when the system is bootstrapped.
74.Pp
75Host names are limited to
76.Brq Dv HOST_NAME_MAX
77characters, not including the trailing null, currently 255.
78.Sh RETURN VALUES
79.Rv -std
80.Sh ERRORS
81The following errors may be returned by these calls:
82.Bl -tag -width Er
83.It Bq Er EFAULT
84The
85.Fa name
86or
87.Fa namelen
88argument gave an
89invalid address.
90.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
91The current host name is longer than
92.Fa namelen .  (For
93.Fn gethostname
94only.)
95.It Bq Er EPERM
96The caller tried to set the host name and was not the super-user.
97.El
98.Sh SEE ALSO
99.Xr sysconf 3 ,
100.Xr sysctl 3
101.Sh STANDARDS
102The
103.Fn gethostname
104function conforms to
105.St -p1003.1-2001 .
106Callers should be aware that
107.Brq Dv HOST_NAME_MAX
108may be variable or infinite, but is guaranteed to be no less than
109.Brq Dv _POSIX_HOST_NAME_MAX .
110On older systems, this limit was defined in the non-standard header
111.In sys/param.h
112as
113.Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN ,
114and counted the terminating null.
115The
116.Fn sethostname
117function and the error returns for
118.Fn gethostname
119are not standardized.
120.Sh HISTORY
121The
122.Fn gethostname
123function appeared in
124.Bx 4.2 .
125The
126.Fa namelen
127argument to
128.Fn gethostname
129was changed to
130.Vt size_t
131in
132.Fx 5.2
133for alignment with
134.St -p1003.1-2001 .
135