On 27 Oct 2023 09:30 -0400, from poc...@columbus.rr.com (Pocket): >> If you're a long form hostname person, then your hostname should be set >> to the FQDN of the system. > > You have confused me. I started to use Debian about 4 months ago > because I no longer want to build and update my custom built > GNU/Linux systems, which I had been doing for 20 years. Upon moving > to Debian I looked up how to set the host name and was instructed to > set the host name as “host” with out any “domain” part and then set > a FQDN in /etc/hosts. Upon further research I found out that is the > proper what to set the host name since UNIX began.
I believe what Gene refers to when saying "long form host name" is the fully qualified host name, which includes both the host name and the domain name within which the host name exists. An example of a fully qualified host name is debian.example.net, where the domain is example.net. Note that the domain isn't necessarily exactly the last two labels of the host name; for example, if you're using mDNS then the domain would be "local" (fully qualified host name perhaps "debian.local") or I might have used "debian.example" instead; and if you work for, say, a large broadcaster in the UK, the domain might be "bbc.co.uk" and the fully qualified host name might be "debian.bbc.co.uk". Running `sudo hostnamectl set-hostname hostname.example.net` will set the host name of the system persistently to the fully qualified host name you provide on the command line. Or you can edit /etc/hostname directly to contain the fully qualified (or single-label) host name you want to use. Then edit /etc/hosts such that it also reflects the changed hostname. -- Michael Kjörling 🔗 https://michael.kjorling.se “Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”