I have a php application that is installed on several servers and all of our developers laptops. I need a fast and reliable way to get the server's hostname or some other unique and reliable system identifier. Here's what we have thought of so far:
<? $hostname = (!empty($_ENV["HOSTNAME"])) ? $_ENV["HOSTNAME"] : env('HOSTNAME'); ?>
<? $hostname = gethostbyaddr($_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR']); ?>
<? $hostname = exec('hostname'); ?>
What do you think?
What about gethostname()?
Edit: This might not be an option I suppose, depending on your environment. It's new in PHP 5.3. php_uname('n') might work as an alternative.
$hostname = gethostname();
For PHP < 5.3.0 but >= 4.2.0 use this:
$hostname = php_uname('n');
For PHP < 4.2.0 use this:
$hostname = getenv('HOSTNAME');
if(!$hostname) $hostname = trim(`hostname`);
if(!$hostname) $hostname = exec('echo $HOSTNAME');
if(!$hostname) $hostname = preg_replace('#^\w+\s+(\w+).*$#', '$1', exec('uname -a'));