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I have a server with fqdn git.mydomain.com (this is in DNS) but I don't really want the machine to have git as its hostname. Right now I have the hostname in /etc/hostname set as (for example):

mycustomhostname

And in /etc/hosts I have

1.2.3.4 git.mydomain.com mycustomhostname

(Where 1.2.3.4 is my server's IP)

I've read that the first component of the FQDN should always be the unqualified hostname, so is what I'm doing bad?

If so, what is the correct way to do what I want?

edit: It might not be clear exactly what I want. Or maybe I don't really understand how all this is supposed to work, but my understanding is that

hostname -f

Should return the fqdn of the server, which in this case is git.mydomain.com

And plain old hostname should return the UNqualified hostname of the server. Every resource I can find says the the unqualified name should be the start of the fqdn but this seems annoying and inconvenient.

I would like

hostname -f

To return git.mydomain.com since that really is the fqdn of the server

But I would like hostname to just return mycustomhostname

Following the instructions of one of the answers, I added an alias in /etc/hosts which looks like this:

127.0.0.1 mycustomhostname
1.2.3.4 git.mydomain.com

And /etc/hostname is still just mycustomhostname

However, this results in the hostname command returning mycustomhostname (which is fine), but hostname -f returns mycustomhostname as well, which is not what I want.

The main reason for this is that when I am ssh'ing in to the server I would like the bash shell to say

myusername@mycustomhostname

Instead of

myusername@git

Simply because it will make it easier for me to know what server I am working with. If I have another server for git repositories (say, git.mydomain2.com) and follow the conventions I see everywhere, then if I ssh'd in to that server bash would also say

myusername@git

Which is confusing for me.

How do I properly have a different hostname to the server's fqdn?

This is on Debian Linux btw.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Why not leave the FQDN alone and just use a CNAME and always refer to it by the CNAME?

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  • Can you elaborate on this? From what I understand a CNAME is done in DNS. What would I do on my server?
    – Cameron Ball
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 6:24
  • What you are wanting to do now based on your extra comments should really be done backwards (your ssh requirement). Only internal? Change the FQDN and hostname to "mycustomname.domain.com" and then set a CNAME as "git.domain.com". External as well? Do the same as internal and have your external DNS resolve to git.domain.com as the A record. To create the CNAME you do that in DNS, so we would need to know what kind of DNS for both internal and external.
    – TheCleaner
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 14:29
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Use a local host address for your host name in your hosts file, and associate the public address with the public IP.

127.0.1.1 mycustomhostname
1.2.3.4 git.mydomain.com
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  • What about /etc/hostname is it correct to leave that as mycustomhostname?
    – Cameron Ball
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 6:32
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You could modify your shell's prompt to whatever you want without changing the hostname at all.

/etc/profile should be a good starting point for this.

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