uname(1) User Commands uname(1)NAMEuname - print name of current system
SYNOPSISuname [-aimnprsvX]
uname [-S system_name]
DESCRIPTION
The uname utility prints information about the current system on the
standard output. When options are specified, symbols representing one
or more system characteristics will be written to the standard output.
If no options are specified, uname prints the current operating sys‐
tem's name. The options print selected information returned by
uname(2), sysinfo(2), or both.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-a Prints basic information currently available from the
system.
-i Prints the name of the platform.
-m Prints the machine hardware name (class). Use of this
option is discouraged. Use uname-p instead. See NOTES
section below.
-n Prints the nodename (the nodename is the name by which
the system is known to a communications network).
-p Prints the current host's ISA or processor type.
-r Prints the operating system release level.
-s Prints the name of the operating system. This is the
default.
-S system_name The nodename may be changed by specifying a system name
argument. The system name argument is restricted to
SYS_NMLN characters. SYS_NMLN is an implementation spe‐
cific value defined in <sys/utsname.h>. Only the super-
user is allowed this capability. This change does not
persist across reboots of the system. Use sys-uncon‐
fig(1M) to change a host's name permanently.
-v Prints the operating system version.
-X Prints expanded system information, one information
element per line, as expected by SCO UNIX. The dis‐
played information includes:
· system name, node, release, version, machine, and
number of CPUs.
· BusType, Serial, and Users (set to "unknown" in
Solaris)
· OEM# and Origin# (set to 0 and 1, respectively)
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Printing the OS name and release level
The following command:
example% uname −sr
prints the operating system name and release level, separated by one
<SPACE> character.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of uname: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES‐
SAGES, and NLSPATH.
SYSV3 This variable is used to override the default behavior of
uname. This is necessary to make it possible for some INTERAC‐
TIVE UNIX Systems and SCO UNIX programs and scripts to work
properly. Many scripts use uname to determine the SYSV3 type
or the version of the OS to ensure software is compatible with
that OS. Setting SYSV3 to an empty string will make uname
print the following default values:
nodename nodename 3.2 2 i386
The individual elements that uname displays can also be modi‐
fied by setting SYSV3 in the following format:
os,sysname,node,rel,ver,mach
os Operating system (IUS or SCO).
sysname System name.
node Nodename as displayed by the -n option.
rel Release level as displayed by the -r option.
ver Version number as displayed by the -v option.
mach Machine name as displayed by -m option.
Do not put spaces between the elements. If an element is
omitted, the current system value will be used.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWcsu │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Standard │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOarch(1), isalist(1), sys-unconfig(1M), sysinfo(2), uname(2), node‐
name(4), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)NOTES
Independent software vendors (ISVs) and others who need to determine
detailed characteristics of the platform on which their software is
either being installed or executed should use the uname command.
To determine the operating system name and release level, use uname-sr. To determine only the operating system release level, use uname-r. Notice that operating system release levels are not guaranteed to
be in x.y format (such as 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, and so forth); future releases
could be in the x.y.z format (such as 5.3.1, 5.3.2, 5.4.1, and so
forth).
In SunOS 4.x releases, the arch(1) command was often used to obtain
information similar to that obtained by using the uname command. The
arch(1) command output "sun4" was often incorrectly interpreted to sig‐
nify a SunOS SPARC system. If hardware platform information is
desired, use uname-sp.
The arch -k and uname-m commands return equivalent values; however,
the use of either of these commands by third party programs is discour‐
aged, as is the use of the arch command in general. To determine the
machine's Instruction Set Architecture (ISA or processor type), use
uname with the -p option.
SunOS 5.10 17 Sep 2003 uname(1)
