NAME

gethostname, sethostname − get/set name of current host

SYNTAX

gethostname(name, namelen)
char *name;
int namelen; isethostname(name, namelen)
ichar *name;
iint namelen;

DESCRIPTION

The gethostname system call 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. 

The sethostname system call sets the name of the host machine to be name, which has length namelen. This call is restricted to the superuser and is normally used only when the system is bootstrapped.

RETURN VALUE

0If the call succeeds a value of 0 is returned. 

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

RESTRICTIONS

Host names are limited to 31 characters and may contain only lower case ASCII characters a to z, numbers 0 to 9, dashes (-), underscores (_), and periods (.). 

DIAGNOSTICS

The gethostname system call will fail if:

[EFAULT]The name points outside the process’ allocated address space. 

The sethostname system call will fail if:

[EPERM]The caller is not the super-user. 

[EINVAL]The name or namelen is an invalid address. 

SEE ALSO

hostname(1), gethostid(2)

System Calls