xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/gen/gethostname.3 (revision a4da4a90)
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28.\"     @(#)gethostname.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/gen/gethostname.3,v 1.17 2007/01/09 00:27:54 imp Exp $
30.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/gen/gethostname.3,v 1.4 2006/05/26 19:39:36 swildner Exp $
31.\"
32.Dd August 18, 2003
33.Dt GETHOSTNAME 3
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm gethostname ,
37.Nm sethostname
38.Nd get/set name of current host
39.Sh LIBRARY
40.Lb libc
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.In unistd.h
43.Ft int
44.Fn gethostname "char *name" "size_t namelen"
45.Ft int
46.Fn sethostname "const char *name" "int namelen"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Fn gethostname
50function
51returns the standard host name for the current processor, as
52previously set by
53.Fn sethostname .
54The
55.Fa namelen
56argument
57specifies the size of the
58.Fa name
59array.
60The returned name is null-terminated unless insufficient space is provided.
61.Pp
62The
63.Fn sethostname
64function
65sets the name of the host machine to be
66.Fa name ,
67which has length
68.Fa namelen .
69This call is restricted to the super-user and
70is normally used only when the system is bootstrapped.
71.Pp
72Host names are limited to
73.Brq Dv HOST_NAME_MAX
74characters, not including the trailing null, currently 255.
75.Sh RETURN VALUES
76.Rv -std
77.Sh ERRORS
78The following errors may be returned by these calls:
79.Bl -tag -width Er
80.It Bq Er EFAULT
81The
82.Fa name
83or
84.Fa namelen
85argument gave an
86invalid address.
87.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
88The current host name is longer than
89.Fa namelen .
90(For
91.Fn gethostname
92only.)
93.It Bq Er EPERM
94The caller tried to set the host name and was not the super-user.
95.El
96.Sh SEE ALSO
97.Xr sysconf 3 ,
98.Xr sysctl 3
99.Sh STANDARDS
100The
101.Fn gethostname
102function conforms to
103.St -p1003.1-2001 .
104Callers should be aware that
105.Brq Dv HOST_NAME_MAX
106may be variable or infinite, but is guaranteed to be no less than
107.Brq Dv _POSIX_HOST_NAME_MAX .
108On older systems, this limit was defined in the non-standard header
109.In sys/param.h
110as
111.Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN ,
112and counted the terminating null.
113The
114.Fn sethostname
115function and the error returns for
116.Fn gethostname
117are not standardized.
118.Sh HISTORY
119The
120.Fn gethostname
121function appeared in
122.Bx 4.2 .
123The
124.Fa namelen
125argument to
126.Fn gethostname
127was changed to
128.Vt size_t
129in
130.Fx 5.2
131for alignment with
132.St -p1003.1-2001 .
133