hostnamectl

TLDR

Show current hostname information

$ hostnamectl

Set the hostname

$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname "hostname"

Set static and pretty hostnames

$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname --static "hostname.example.com" && sudo hostnamectl set-hostname --pretty "My Computer"

Reset pretty hostname to default

$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname --pretty ""

Set chassis type

$ sudo hostnamectl set-chassis desktop

Set deployment environment

$ sudo hostnamectl set-deployment production

SYNOPSIS

hostnamectl [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]

DESCRIPTION

hostnamectl queries and changes the system hostname and related machine metadata. It manages three hostname types: static (persistent), pretty (human-readable), and transient (temporary).

PARAMETERS

--static

Operate on static hostname only

--transient

Operate on transient hostname only

--pretty

Operate on pretty hostname only

--no-ask-password

Do not prompt for password

-H, --host

Execute operation on remote host

-M, --machine

Execute operation on container

-j, --json

Output in JSON format

COMMANDS

status

Show current hostname and machine information

hostname [NAME]

Get or set the system hostname

set-hostname NAME

Set the system hostname

set-chassis TYPE

Set the chassis type (desktop, laptop, server, vm, container, etc.)

set-deployment ENV

Set deployment environment (development, production, etc.)

set-location LOC

Set physical location of the machine

set-icon-name NAME

Set icon name for graphical UIs

HOSTNAME TYPES

Static: Stored in /etc/hostname, survives reboots
Transient: Temporary, set by DHCP or mDNS
Pretty: Free-form UTF-8 name for display purposes

CAVEATS

The static hostname should be a single valid DNS label (no spaces, only alphanumeric and hyphens). The pretty hostname can contain any characters and is for display only.

HISTORY

hostnamectl is part of systemd, providing unified hostname management through systemd-hostnamed.