freebsd man page for sethostid

GETHOSTID(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 					      GETHOSTID(3)

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

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     long
     gethostid(void);

     void
     sethostid(long hostid);

DESCRIPTION
     The sethostid() function 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.

     The gethostid() function 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.

BSD
								   June 2, 1993 							       BSD