topic Re: hostname length limitation in Operating System - HP-UX

hostname length limitation

Salvi Marco — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:26:31 GMT

Setting hostname of HP-UX length more than 8 digits I obtain the following results:

example

hostname=lab333444

the command:
#hostname
return
lab333444

but the command
#uname -s
return
HP-UX unknown B.11.11 U 9000/800 864950601 unlimited-user license

In addition I cannot use the CDE because I get
an error concerning a bad configuration of /etc/hosts (that is ok) or network parameter.
Anyone know if exists a patch for thi problem?

Re: hostname length limitation

Dave Hutton — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:29:10 GMT

You can try to use #setparams hostname.
That'll make sure that you get all the locations that would need to be changed all at once.

Dave

Re: hostname length limitation

T G Manikandan — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:30:48 GMT

hostname length is not recommended to be greater than 8 characters.

You cannot do that until you install a patch for that

Re: hostname length limitation

Joseph Loo — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:30:52 GMT

hi,

did you include an entry of the server name and ip address in the /etc/hosts?

by the way, it should be uname -a, right?

regards.

Re: hostname length limitation

T G Manikandan — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:31:57 GMT

check this doc

If the hostname exceeds eight characters you will face the problems defined in doc

http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000063236997

Re: hostname length limitation

Salvi Marco — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:36:25 GMT

The network settings are all rigth.
I modified the following files

/etc/rc.config.d/netconf
/etc/hosts

Re: hostname length limitation

Pete Randall — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:39:35 GMT

You're seeing the difference between "hostname" and "uname". Hostname length can be set with MAXHOSTNAMELEN as defined in . However, the node name, returned by uname, is not allowed to exceed 8 characters. The resulting confusion can wreak havoc on your system. It's far simpler to keep system names to 8 or fewer characters.

Pete

Re: hostname length limitation

Steven E. Protter — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:47:25 GMT

its a feature

hostname can't be more than 8 digits

you can be server.some.net

you can get longer domain names via DNS

SEP

Re: hostname length limitation

Salvi Marco — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 10:58:19 GMT

thanks a lot guys

Re: hostname length limitation

Bill Hassell — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 11:34:45 GMT

Note that the name used in DNS by other computers can be different than your local hostname. So you can have two names for your computer, one for networking and the other for uname (see man hostname). To set both of them, edit the file /etc/rc.config.d/netconf and add the undocumented variable NODENAME. NODENAME must be no more than 8 characters, but HOSTNAME can be up to 64 chars. So for your case:

HOSTNAME=lab333444
NODENAME=lb333444 (or whatever you want)

You can set hostname and uname without rebooting:

hostname lab333444
uname -S lb333444

but make sure you edit the netconf file so the change is permanent after a reboot.

Re: hostname length limitation

Berlene Herren — Sat, 21 Feb 2004 05:31:03 GMT

"The setuname() system call sets the node name (system name), as returned in
the nodename field of the utsname structure, to name, which has a length of
namelen characters. This is usually executed by /sbin/init.d/hostname at
system boot time. Names are limited to UTSLEN - 1 characters; UTSLEN is
defined in ."

UTSLEN is #defined to _SYS_NMLN which is set to 9.

Berlene

Re: hostname length limitation

derek b smith_1 — Wed, 05 May 2004 16:52:55 GMT

what is the patch name to go beyond 8 characters? I did look in params.h and yes 64 is the max but what is there a patch needed to go beyond 8 considering this variable in params.h?
does this apply to 11i as well?
thanks
derek

Re: hostname length limitation

Bill Hassell — Wed, 05 May 2004 20:08:38 GMT

AS mentioned in the URL above, adding the patch will BREAK a lot of programs. You don't want to change the hostname to more than 8 characters. Even the patch will not work until you create a file that is called something: ItakeFULLresponsibilityFORallTHEproblems

As mentioned above, the network name can be 64 characters long, but the uname value cannot be longer than 8 characters. Although not clearly defined in the netconf file, you must set NODENAME to an 8 character name and set HOSTNAME to anything you like up to 64 chars. This will usually be the name your system will have in DNS. Both NODENAME and HOSTNAME should be set in /etc/rc.config.d/netconf