[SOLVED] What is the minimum length of the Linux hostname???

[ineuw]

The title says it all. The maximum is not a problem because there are unlimited resources on the topic but nobody provides any info on the minimum length. I am aware of the limitations of the special characters and symbols, but I am referring to a straightforward ANSI English alphanumeric values with out any diacritical marks or symbols.

I am asking because my previous hostname was "dtop32" (six characters) and on a recent attempt to install some software, I got the "Cannot resolve hostname" error. The name in both /hosts and /hostname files contained the identical name.

[deepakdeshp]

I have a 3 lettered hostname without a problem.
I feel 1 lettered should be fine too.

[MrEen]

I'm wondering if "Cannot resolve hostname" refers to the site you're trying to install software from.

The live mint uses "mint" as the hostname so 6 chars is certainly more than enough.

[GS3]

I just spent several hours troubleshooting a similar error message I was getting with GPA. It turns out there are two files where the host name must be present. With "hostnamectl set-hostname bob" you can change the host name which is kept in the file etc/hostname. You can probably just edit that file manually.

BUT it turns out you need to edit another file, the etc/hosts file. Right under the line "127.0.0.1 localhost" put the new line "127.0.0.1 bob". In my case that fixed the problem of the error message.

If this is needed I do not understand why the tool to changes the host name does not do it automatically and I have to do it manually. I just wasted several hours on this.