My computer name in System Preferences > Sharing is set to "archos", but is showing as "iphone" on Terminal. It just started doing this after I loaded Xcode for doing iPhone development:
Last login: Mon Nov 7 14:46:55 on ttys001
iphone:~ travis$ echo $HOSTNAME
archos.local
iphone:~ travis$
Any ideas what could be causing this?
It's perfectly normal for this to occur; when you login Terminal remotely bash does a reverse DNS lookup. It will only be the same if the hostname is not specified on the network you're connecting from and there is no reply from the DHCP server, or the reverse lookup against the remote DNS server fails to resolve.
You can easily over-ride the default setting by using this command in Terminal:
sudo scutil --set HostName archos
You can check it by using:
nslookup nn.nn.nn.nn
( or )
host nn.nn.nn.nn
(where nn signifies your Mac's ip address)
sudo scutil --set HostName ''.
Commented
May 5, 2014 at 4:51
HostName is not advisable, because it creates a separate value that then persists even when you later try to change the hostname via System Preferences > Sharing. By contrast, setting LocalHostName updates the same value, and is normally also picked up by the shell and hostname (the ComputerName value should be updated in tandem). Or does setting HostName behave differently in a way that is advantageous here?
Commented
May 5, 2014 at 5:00
There are some helpful comments below this answer that you might want to read first.
Go to System Preferences -> Sharing and update your Computer Name.
Then in Terminal, you can view settings via:
sudo scutil --get ComputerName
sudo scutil --get LocalHostName
sudo scutil --get HostName
You can also change the values using the scutil command:
sudo scutil --set ComputerName "newname"
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName "newname"
sudo scutil --set HostName "newname"
scutil to set HostName, both ComputerName and LocalHostName were already set to the new name for me (in Mavericks). Nice to know that these other settings exist, though.
Commented
Nov 15, 2013 at 19:02
HostName, because doing so will make that value persist even when you later try to change your hostname via System Preferences. Conversely, the LocalHostName is picked up by the shell and hostname, so HostName is never needed.
Commented
May 5, 2014 at 4:50
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName '' deleted LocalHostName and now my prompt is using ComputerName, which has the correct value.
There are two potential reasons for the shell ($HOSTNAME variable, '\h' in $PS1) and the hostname utility to report a hostname that differs from the one shown in System Preferences > Sharing:
sudo scutil --set HostName newName was used to persistently change the hostname - unfortunately, this value is independent of the LocalHostName value set by System Preferences behind the scenes - even though man hostname suggests this method, DO NOT USE IT for that reason; run sudo scutil --set HostName '' to remove it, at which point LocalHostName should again be reported; for background, see this post by @Lauri Ranta.
[Update: The following is no longer true as of OSX 10.10] If your /etc/hosts file has an entry that matches your machine's IP address, that entry's name will be reported.
Only if neither of the above is true will the shell and hostname reflect the value set via System Preferences.
If you want to change your hostname from the shell, run both of the following:
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName <newName>sudo scutil --set ComputerName <newFriendlyName>where <newFriendlyName> can be a friendlier version (spaces, punctuation) of <newName> (alphanumerics and dashes only).
sudo scutil --set HostName '' first (case matters) and made sure that there's no entry in /etc/hosts? scutil --get HostName should report Hostname: not set.
Commented
Dec 19, 2014 at 18:03
scutil --get HostName HostName: not set /etc/hosts seems benign...
Commented
Dec 19, 2014 at 19:39
PS1 variable doesn't happen to have a hard-coded hostname rather than using \h, does it? As an aside: /etc/hosts is no longer consulted as of OSX 10.10 (I've updated my answer).
Commented
Dec 19, 2014 at 20:15
sudo scutil --set HostName '' ) again allows OS X to map the computer name to its IP address (e.g., this now works ping <computername>).
Commented
Apr 22, 2015 at 22:10
In addition to Jeffrey J. Hoover's tip (above),
I would add these last two steps:
dscacheutil -flushcacheI agree that Jeffrey Hoover's tip was the correct answer. Flushing the DNS cache and restarting the Mac is a nice step too. This is variant of Jeff Hoover's reply:
sudo -i
Password:
for n in HostName ComputerName LocalHostName; do
scutil --set $n new_hostname
done
exit
-: it must be --set to work. Also, as I commented at Jeff's answer: it's probably better to not set HostName.
Commented
May 5, 2014 at 20:51
System Preferences -> Sharing -> Computer Name --> set it to whatever
And then restart your computer. No console commands were necessary. Works for OS X 10.10.2
hostname returned "MacBook-Pro". I even changed it and still had the problem. I've never seen this issue before. The scutil commands worked for me. I'm wondering where / how you are suppose to do that via the GUI interface.
I had the problem that only the shell itself (zsh in my case) failed to show the correct computer name. Simply restarting the shell solved it:
exec /bin/zsh
Use this
sudo systemsetup -setcomputername $name
As mentioned in a separate answer, another option is to override the default PS1 prompt, like executing the following line (or adding it to your ~/.bash_profile file):
$ PS1="$(scutil --get ComputerName):\W \u\\$ "
refs:
https://superuser.com/a/414903/39364
http://www.cnet.com/news/keep-your-command-prompt-host-name-static-in-os-x-and-other-unix-systems/
In addition to the previous answer, remember that you can use a static address in your router. You have to enter the static IP and the MAC address of your network card, then you set a name for it. The hostname will be automagically updated to the specified name. That's it.
