hostnamectl
queries and changes the system hostname and related machine metadata
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 informationhostname [NAME]
Get or set the system hostnameset-hostname NAME
Set the system hostnameset-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 machineset-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.
SEE ALSO
hostname(1), systemd-hostnamed(8), machine-info(5)