June 2, 1993 GETHOSTID 3

### NAME

gethostid, sethostid - get/set unique identifier of current host

### LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

### SYNOPSIS

```long` gethostid(```void`)
```int` sethostid(```long hostid`)

### DESCRIPTION

sethostid(``) 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.

gethostid(``) 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).

### SEE ALSO

gethostname(3), sysctl(3), sysctl(8)

### 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.