/etc/init.d/hostname starts failed

I recently updated my portage to the latest one, glibc to version 2.4 and my compiler from 3.3.6 to 3.4.5, then I did the following

emerge --update system
emerge --update world

But after finishing everything, An error occurs:

Set to the hostname of this machine

HOSTNAME="Gary"
hostname: name too long
Failed to set the hostname
Failed to start /etc/init.d/hostname

Then the system asked for root password for maintenance.....

What happen to my linux box ??

I did anything wrong????

emerge world 后etc-update过了吗？？

fix it ! I copy another /etc/init.d/hostname script from another machine to my machine, everything goes well now....

to Iamthetop: I did etc-update