To the best of my knowledge: | 1. What files, if any, does the hostname command write to? I couldn't | find any it wrote to. None. When setting the host name it reads the file specified with the -F/--file option. | 2. What programs, if any, look at the information the hostname command | gives? Shell scripts mostly. Compile stuff would most likely use the gethostname function directly. | 3. When would you want to use the hostname command? In a script to get the hostname. If you're changing the hostname, and on boot to set the hostname. Man hostname for other uses. Andrew S. Zbikowski | http://www.ringworld.org "The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world."