Here I show one of the ways to change hostname on a Ubuntu machine.

Checking current hostname

In order to check the current ubuntu machine hostname you can use these commands:

  • hostname
  • hostnamectl

Changing hostname

/etc/hosts

The first place where I change hostname is the hosts file:

  • sudo nano /etc/hosts

I change line with 127.0.1.1 local ip. Where the first part is a local ip, second is the FQDN (fully qualified domain name) hostname and the last one is the machine hostname itself. Example:

127.0.1.1      w.savalione.com w

/etc/hostname

The second place where I change hostname is the hostname file:

  • sudo nano /etc/hostname

Here I use a FQDN machine name (something like that: w.savalione.com).

hostnamectl

Also, after changing configuration files, I use hostnamectl tool:

  • sudo hostnamectl set-hostname w.savalione.com

reboot

In the end I reboot the machine:

  • sudo systemctl reboot

Summing up

  1. sudo nano /etc/hosts
  2. sudo nano /etc/hostname
  3. sudo hostnamectl set-hostname hostname.example.com
  4. sudo systemctl reboot
Author: Savelii Pototskii
Date:
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Copyright: CC-BY
Categories: linux