If you've ever needed to change the hostname for Red Hat Linux, CentOS or similar operating systems, you can do so easily with one simple command.

Just use the echo command to replace the contents of /proc/sys/kernel/hostname with your new host name.

# echo hostname.com > /proc/sys/kernel/hostname

Then restart the network interfaces:

# /etc/init.d/network restart 

Shutting down interface venet0: [ OK ]

Shutting down loopback interface: [ OK ]

Bringing up loopback interface: [ OK ]

Bringing up interface venet0: RTNETLINK answers: File exists

RTNETLINK answers: File exists

[ OK ]

Now you can use the hostname command to verify that it has changed.