hostname vs gethostname

Short answerBy steady daily use, hostname is bigger: 560,440 real downloads a day against 420,580 for gethostname (1.3x). 743 crates depend on hostname and 311 on gethostname. hostname last shipped 11 months ago, gethostname 12 months ago.

hostname

Established

Established and losing ground.

743 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.

Cross-platform system's host name functions

gethostname

Established

Established and gaining.

311 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.

gethostname for all platforms

hostnamegethostname · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic

Every number, side by side

Same window, same method	hostname	gethostname
Real downloads a day	560,440	420,580
Crates that depend on it	743	311
Last release	0.4.2, 11 months ago	1.1.0, 12 months ago
Trend vs the field	-13%	+22%
Release-window share	0.0%	0.0%
Downloads in the window	47,898,636	39,957,855
All-time downloads	230,567,770	139,867,896
Versions published	12	15
License	MIT	Apache-2.0
MSRV	1.74	1.71
First published	Dec 13, 2016	Jan 20, 2019

Which to pick

Downloads tell you what is common, not what fits. Each crate's own description above says what it is for; when the jobs differ, pick by the job.
When both fit, prefer the one more crates depend on (hostname, 743 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
Check the release dates against your own pace: hostname 11 months ago, gethostname 12 months ago.

Also in this space

num_threadsPulled inA minimal library that determines the number of running threads for the current process566,226 a day, 11 dependents wasitePulled inWASI Terminal Environment API348,285 a day, 1 dependents getrandomWidely usedA small cross-platform library for retrieving random data from system source7,623,482 a day, 5,558 dependents socket2Widely usedUtilities for handling networking sockets with a maximal amount of configuration possible intended4,034,112 a day, 1,539 dependents

Compare 4 of them side by side →

Method

Real downloads = the median day with no release that day or the day before, from the crates.io API (Jul 27, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026). Raw crates.io counts include CI and bots and run high (why); the method is from our 90-day study.

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