NAME

gethostid, sethostid —

get/set unique identifier of current host

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

long
gethostid(void);

void
sethostid(long hostid);

DESCRIPTION

The sethostid() function establishes a 32-bit identifier for the current processor that is intended to be unique among all UNIX systems in existence. This is normally a DARPA Internet address for the local machine. This call is allowed only to the super-user and is normally performed at boot time.

The gethostid() function returns the 32-bit identifier for the current processor.

This function has been deprecated. The hostid should be set or retrieved by use of sysctl(3).

HISTORY

The gethostid() and sethostid() syscalls appeared in 4.2BSD and were dropped in 4.4BSD.

BUGS

32 bits for the identifier is too small.