Comment 5 for bug 596993

As the ec2 meta-data, local-hostname, returns the long form of hostname,
I would also propose that an enhancement that a new ec2 meta-data attribute be added:

     local-shortname

that would return the short version of hostname such as is returned from 'hostname -s' on a properly configured system.

This would make it easier for users to get the hostname format that they need.