The macosxhints Forums - Command to retrieve computer name? (not hostname)

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- - Command to retrieve computer name? (not hostname) (http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=101493)

commands to retrieve computer name

FWIW, i pieced together this script to quickly run through all [eight!] possibilities, so we can quickly compare their various outputs. I even added another approach that uses AppleScript (via osascript). So far, i think scutil seems the simplest. Before you discount the PlistBuddy method, it's the only one that works in [raw] single-user mode... though i'm not sure there's much use for knowing the computer name there.

Code:

#!/bin/bash -

# compare eight methods for getting the "Computer Name"

IFS=$' \t\n'

declare -x PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/libexec



function show () { printf '\n\e[1m%s\e[0m\n' "$1"; }



show 'hostname -s'

hostname -s



show 'scutil --get ComputerName'

scutil --get ComputerName



show "uname -n |sed 's/\..*$//'"

uname -n |sed 's/\..*$//'



show "sysctl -n kern.hostname |sed 's/\..*$//'"

sysctl -n kern.hostname |sed 's/\..*$//'



show 'networksetup -getcomputername 2>/dev/null'

networksetup -getcomputername 2>/dev/null



show "osascript -e 'computer name of (system info)'"

osascript -e 'computer name of (system info)'



show "system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType |sed '/ *Computer Name: /!d;s///'"

system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType |sed '/ *Computer Name: /!d;s///'



show "PlistBuddy -c 'Print System:Network:HostNames:LocalHostName' \\

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist"

PlistBuddy -c 'Print System:Network:HostNames:LocalHostName' \

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist



echo

exit

Hal-

You forgot a method, there is also a switch in the systemsetup command to get and set the computer name.

Well personally being a bit "old school" and a long time Unix head I'd use this...

uname -n | awk -F. '{ print $1 }'

:D

Hmm, interesting and weird: it pops up a *GUI* dialog requesting a password!!! :eek:

Think i'll skip that one. (it appears to be networksetup's little brother anyway).

Must be some OSA script:

Code:

osascript -e 'computer name of (system info)'

This is the simplest way.

I don't understand what's going on here. I visited this thread several times since posting my 12-12-2009, 03:08 PM reply (post #24) to tlarkin. The post by Shardy was never here then (so in fact, my post was actually numbered #23 when i replied back in Dec.). And it remained so for a while when i checked back. [i.e., no Shardy post.]

Now both Shardy and renaultssoftware are repeating stuff already contained in my post #21. It's almost as if they (at times) can't see my posts and i (at times) can't see theirs.

Maybe it's that thing where new member posts don't display until they're approved? If so, that would be *my* excuse then.

Perhaps the Mods merged two threads.

Hal, I just now saw your post after visiting this thread several times.