xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/gethostname.3 (revision f5463265955b829775bbb32e1fd0bc11dafc36ce)
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28.Dd July 13, 2020
29.Dt GETHOSTNAME 3
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm gethostname ,
33.Nm sethostname
34.Nd get/set name of current host
35.Sh LIBRARY
36.Lb libc
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.In unistd.h
39.Ft int
40.Fn gethostname "char *name" "size_t namelen"
41.Ft int
42.Fn sethostname "const char *name" "int namelen"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fn gethostname
46function
47returns the standard host name for the current processor, as
48previously set by
49.Fn sethostname .
50The
51.Fa namelen
52argument
53specifies the size of the
54.Fa name
55array.
56The returned name is null-terminated unless insufficient space is provided.
57.Pp
58The
59.Fn sethostname
60function
61sets the name of the host machine to be
62.Fa name ,
63which has length
64.Fa namelen .
65This call is restricted to the super-user and
66is normally used only when the system is bootstrapped.
67.Pp
68Applications should use
69.Fn sysconf _SC_HOST_NAME_MAX
70to find the maximum length of a host name (not including the terminating null).
71.Sh RETURN VALUES
72.Rv -std
73.Sh ERRORS
74The following errors may be returned by these calls:
75.Bl -tag -width Er
76.It Bq Er EFAULT
77The
78.Fa name
79or
80.Fa namelen
81argument gave an
82invalid address.
83.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
84The current host name is longer than
85.Fa namelen .
86(For
87.Fn gethostname
88only.)
89.It Bq Er EPERM
90The caller tried to set the host name and was not the super-user.
91.El
92.Sh SEE ALSO
93.Xr sysconf 3 ,
94.Xr sysctl 3
95.Sh STANDARDS
96The
97.Fn gethostname
98function conforms to
99.St -p1003.1-2001 .
100Callers should be aware that
101.Brq Dv HOST_NAME_MAX
102may be variable or infinite, but is guaranteed to be no less than
103.Brq Dv _POSIX_HOST_NAME_MAX .
104On older systems, this limit was defined in the non-standard header
105.In sys/param.h
106as
107.Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN ,
108and counted the terminating null.
109The
110.Fn sethostname
111function and the error returns for
112.Fn gethostname
113are not standardized.
114.Sh HISTORY
115The
116.Fn gethostname
117function appeared in
118.Bx 4.2 .
119The
120.Fa namelen
121argument to
122.Fn gethostname
123was changed to
124.Vt size_t
125in
126.Fx 5.2
127for alignment with
128.St -p1003.1-2001 .
129