diff --git a/plugins/out_file/file.c b/plugins/out_file/file.c
index 2e47c9666..95d28e438 100644
--- a/plugins/out_file/file.c
+++ b/plugins/out_file/file.c
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include <msgpack.h>
 
 #include <stdio.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
@@ -55,6 +56,7 @@ struct flb_file_conf {
     int csv_column_names;
     int mkdir;
     struct flb_output_instance *ins;
+    char hostname[256];
 };
 
 static char *check_delimiter(const char *str)
@@ -141,6 +143,9 @@ static int cb_file_init(struct flb_output_instance *ins,
         }
     }
 
+    if (gethostname(ctx->hostname, sizeof(ctx->hostname)) != 0)
+	    snprintf(ctx->hostname, sizeof(ctx->hostname), "%s", "localhost");
+
     tmp = flb_output_get_property("delimiter", ins);
     ret_str = check_delimiter(tmp);
     if (ret_str != NULL) {
@@ -233,12 +238,8 @@ static int template_output_write(struct flb_file_conf *ctx,
     int i;
     msgpack_object_kv *kv;
 
-    /*
-     * Right now we treat "{time}" specially and fill the placeholder
-     * with the metadata timestamp (formatted as float).
-     */
-    if (!strncmp(key, "time", size)) {
-        fprintf(fp, "%f", flb_time_to_double(tm));
+    if (!strncmp(key, "hostname", size)) {
+        fprintf(fp, "%s", ctx->hostname);
         return 0;
     }