gethostname Subroutine

Purpose

Gets the name of the local host.

Library

Standard C Library (libc.a)

Syntax

#include <unistd.h> int gethostname ( Name, NameLength) char *Name; size_t NameLength;

Description

The gethostname subroutine retrieves the standard host name of the local host. If excess space is provided, the returned Name parameter is null-terminated. If insufficient space is provided, the returned name is truncated to fit in the given space. System host names are limited to 256 characters.

The gethostname subroutine allows a calling process to determine the internal host name for a machine on a network.

All applications containing the gethostname subroutine must be compiled with the _BSD macro set to a specific value. Acceptable values are 43 and 44. In addition, all socket applications must include the BSD libbsd.a library.

Parameters

Item	Description
Name	Specifies the address of an array of bytes where the host name is to be stored.
NameLength	Specifies the length of the Name array.

Return Values

Upon successful completion, the system returns a value of 0.

If the gethostname subroutine is unsuccessful, the subroutine handler performs the following functions:

Returns a value of -1 to the calling program.
Moves an error code, indicating the specific error, into the errno global variable.

Error Codes

The gethostname subroutine is unsuccessful if the following is true:

Error	Description
EFAULT	The Name parameter or NameLength parameter gives an invalid address.