man pages section 1: User Commands

uname(1)

NAME

uname- print name of current system

SYNOPSIS

uname

-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 system's name. The options print selected information returned by uname(2), sysinfo(2), or both.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:

-a

Print basic information currently available from the system.

-i

Print the name of the hardware implementation (platform).

-m

Print the machine hardware name (class). Use of this option is discouraged; use uname -p instead. See NOTES section below.

-n

Print the node name (the node name is the name by which the system is known to a communications network).

-p

Print the current host's ISA or processor type.

-r

Print the operating system release level.

-s

Print the name of the operating system. This is the default.

-v

Print the operating system version.

-X

Print expanded system information, one information element per line, as expected by SCO UNIX. The displayed 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)

-S system_name

The node name may be changed by specifying a system_name argument. The system_name argument is restricted to SYS_NMLN characters. SYS_NMLN is an implementation-specific value defined in <sys/utsname.h>.

To succeed with the -S option in the Trusted Solaris environment, this command needs the sys_net_config privilege. If a user other than root attempts this option, the command also needs the file_dac_read, file_dac_write, file_mac_read, and file_mac_write privileges to update the /etc/nodename file.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 Using The uname Command

The following command:

example% uname -sr

SPACE

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

SYSV3

This variable is used to override the default behavior of uname. This is necessary to make it possible for some INTERACTIVE UNIX Systems and SCO UNIX programs and scripts to work properly. Many scripts use uname to determine the OS 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 modified 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.

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of uname: LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

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

SUMMARY OF TRUSTED SOLARIS CHANGES

To succeed with the -S option, this command needs the sys_net_config privilege. If a user other than root attempts this option, the command also needs the file_dac_read, file_dac_write, file_mac_read, and file_mac_write privileges to update the /etc/nodename file.

Trusted Solaris 8 4/01 Reference Manual

sysinfo(2)

SunOS 5.8 Reference Manual

arch(1), isalist(1), uname(2), attributes(5), environ(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. Note that operating system release levels are not guaranteed to be in x.y format, such as 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, and so on; future releases may be in the x.y.z format, such as 5.3.1, 5.3.2, 5.4.1 and so on.

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 signify 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 discouraged, 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.

Trusted Solaris 8 4/01 Last Revised 1 Feb 2001