machine-info
systemd
machine-info
5
machine-info
Local machine information file
/etc/machine-info
Description
The /etc/machine-info file contains
machine metadata.
The basic file format of machine-info
is a newline-separated list of environment-like shell-compatible
variable assignments. It is possible to source the configuration
from shell scripts, however, beyond mere variable assignments no
shell features are supported, allowing applications to read the
file without implementing a shell compatible execution
engine.
/etc/machine-info contains metadata
about the machine that is set by the user or administrator.
Depending on the operating system other configuration files
might be checked for machine information as well, however only as
fallback.
You may use
hostnamectl1
to change the settings of this file from the command line.
Options
The following machine metadata parameters may be set using
/etc/machine-info:
PRETTY_HOSTNAME=
A pretty human-readable UTF-8 machine
identifier string. This should contain a name like
Lennart's Laptop which is useful to present
to the user and does not suffer by the syntax limitations of
internet domain names. If possible, the internet hostname as
configured in /etc/hostname should be
kept similar to this one. Example: if this value is
Lennart's Computer an Internet hostname of
lennarts-computer might be a good choice.
If this parameter is not set, an application should fall back
to the Internet host name for presentation
purposes.
ICON_NAME=
An icon identifying this machine according to
the XDG
Icon Naming Specification. If this parameter is not
set, an application should fall back to
computer or a similar icon
name.
CHASSIS=
The chassis type. Currently, the following
chassis types are defined:
desktop,
laptop,
convertible,
server,
tablet,
handset,
watch, and
embedded,
as well as the special chassis types
vm and
container for
virtualized systems that lack an immediate physical chassis.
Note that many systems allow detection of the chassis type
automatically (based on firmware information or suchlike).
This setting (if set) shall take precedence over automatically
detected information and is useful to override misdetected
configuration or to manually configure the chassis type where
automatic detection is not available.
DEPLOYMENT=
Describes the system deployment environment.
One of the following is suggested:
development,
integration,
staging,
production.
LOCATION=
Describes the system location if applicable
and known. Takes a human-friendly, free-form string. This may
be as generic as Berlin, Germany or as
specific as Left Rack, 2nd Shelf.
Example
PRETTY_HOSTNAME="Lennart's Tablet"
ICON_NAME=computer-tablet
CHASSIS=tablet
DEPLOYMENT=production
See Also
systemd1,
os-release5,
hostname5,
machine-id5,
hostnamectl1,
systemd-hostnamed.service8