Changing host names on Unix is surprisingly complicated and implementation-specific. Even though there is a “hostname” command in most (all?) Unices, it generally doesn’t change everything.
After recently renaming an OpenBSD system, I thought I’d make a quick howto. In this example, I’ll change a server the new name cthulhu.example.com.
First, use the hostname command:
# hostname cthulhu.example.com
Next modify /etc/myname to have the same information:
# cat /etc/myname cthulhu.example.com
Update /etc/hosts, replacing the old hostname with the new.
Finally replace the host keys:
# cd /etc/ssh # rm -f *_key *.pub # ssh-keygen -A
And that’s it for the base system. Consider other software you might have installed such as mail, etc.
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I’m confused about a few things and haven’t made this change yet. Can you share a more detailed cover letter?