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Change_Hostname_macOS.md

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Change Hostname (Rename a Host) - macOS

Best-practices for naming hosts

(from AskDifferent: Set the hostname/computer name for macOS
and AutoDesk's Support doc.: How to set the Mac hostname or computer name from the terminal)

Table of Contents

Choose a Valid Hostname

  • Use a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and hyphen (-) characters only
  • Avoid underscores (_), spaces, and other symbols
  • Do not start a host-name with a number
  • Do not end a host-name with a hyphen

Check the Current Hostname

To list the existing name(s) of this machine
open a Terminal window and run the following commands

scutil --get HostName
scutil --get LocalHostName
scutil --get ComputerName

Set a New Hostname

To change the hostname of this machine
open a Terminal window and run the following commands

NEW_HOSTNAME=<New-Name>
sudo scutil --set HostName $NEW_HOSTNAME
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName $NEW_HOSTNAME
sudo scutil --set ComputerName $NEW_HOSTNAME
dscacheutil -flushcache

Optional: Assign a Loopback Address to the Hostname

To ensure that the DNS domain name and FQDN of the machine are reported back correctly,
change the following line of the /etc/hosts file to include the FQDN and host-name as
the first two entries:

127.0.0.1 hostname-fqdn hostname localhost

For example:

127.0.0.1 my-server.example.com my-server localhost

Remove any other references to hostname-fqdn or hostname from other entries in the file.

Reboot

Reboot the server so the changes will take effect,
for example:

sudo reboot

Check the (New) Hostname

See above - Check the Current Hostname