diff --git a/luaa.c b/luaa.c
index acfdd3b4..c647fc45 100644
--- a/luaa.c
+++ b/luaa.c
@@ -56,6 +56,8 @@
 
 #include <xcb/xcb_atom.h>
 
+#include <unistd.h> /* for gethostname() */
+
 #ifdef WITH_DBUS
 extern const struct luaL_Reg awesome_dbus_lib[];
 #endif
@@ -255,6 +257,7 @@ luaA_fixups(lua_State *L)
  *  startup.
  * @field composite_manager_running True if a composite manager is running.
  * @field unix_signal Table mapping between signal numbers and signal identifiers.
+ * @field hostname The hostname of the computer on which we are running.
  * @table awesome
  */
 static int
@@ -303,6 +306,17 @@ luaA_awesome_index(lua_State *L)
         return 1;
     }
 
+    if(A_STREQ(buf, "hostname"))
+    {
+        /* No good way to handle failures... */
+        char hostname[256] = "";
+        gethostname(&hostname[0], countof(hostname));
+        hostname[countof(hostname) - 1] = '\0';
+
+        lua_pushstring(L, hostname);
+        return 1;
+    }
+
     return luaA_default_index(L);
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/test-spawn-snid.lua b/tests/test-spawn-snid.lua
index 1bfb706a..06adc968 100644
--- a/tests/test-spawn-snid.lua
+++ b/tests/test-spawn-snid.lua
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ local manage_called, c_snid
 client.connect_signal("manage", function(c)
   manage_called = true
   c_snid = c.startup_id
+  assert(c.machine == awesome.hostname,
+      tostring(c.machine) .. " ~= " .. tostring(awesome.hostname))
 end)