uname(C)

uname -- print the name of the operating system

Syntax

uname [ -aAmnrsvX ]

uname [ -S node_name ]

Description

The uname command prints the name of the operating system to the standard output.

The various options to uname return selected information that is available with the uname(S-osr5) system call:

-a: Print all the information corresponding to the options -s, -n, -r, -v, and -m.
-A: Print the license field (activation state) information.
-m: Print the machine hardware name.
-n: Print the machine's node name; the name by which it is known to a communications network.
-r: Print the operating system release. The value returned can be overridden by the SCOMPAT environment variable, described below.
-s: Print the operating system name (the default action of uname). The value returned can be overridden by the SCOMPAT and UNAME_OLD environment variables, described below.
-S node_name: Change the machine's node name to node_name. Note that only root is allowed to change the node name. This option does not change the operating system name.
The format of node_name is restricted to 8 characters from the set of lowercase letters, numeric digits, dash ``-'', and underscore ``_''; the name may not begin with a digit.
-v: Print the operating system version number. The value returned can be overridden by the SCOMPAT and UNAME_OLD environment variables, described below.
-X: Print information about system name, node name, operating system release number, kernel ID, processor type, bus type, serial number, number of users license (2-user, 8-user or unlimited), OEM number, origin number, and number of CPUs.

Compatibility notes

The environment variable SCOMPAT allows you to override the default values for the system name, release, and version parameters, to maintain compatibility with shell scripts and applications intended for earlier releases. This override applies to the current process and its children only, and affects the return of the uname command only (and not, for example, the uname system call).

The syntax of the SCOMPAT variable is:

   release:version[:sysname[:Xrelease]]

The first three values override the corresponding uname parameter_name. The final parameter (Xrelease), is intended for compatibility with scripts using the undocumented legacy -X Release option.

For example, setting SCOMPAT as follows:

   export SCOMPAT=4:5.0.7:SCO_SV

causes uname to respond as if the system were a &harveywest; system.

To change these values for the whole system, as well as to change the return values of uname(), confstr(), and sysinfo() for compatibility purposes, see chsysinfo(ADM).

Older releases of SCO OpenServer also incorrectly displayed the node name in place of the system name, and always displayed a version number of "2". Older application scripts may depend on this incorrect behavior. If the environment variable UNAME_OLD exists, uname displays the system name as the node name and the operating system version as "2".

Warning

Previous releases of uname and uname(S-osr5) returned the machine's node name if no command line option was specified. This may cause existing application scripts and binaries to fail under this release.

UnixWare compatibility notes

When running ACP on UnixWare systems, set OSRCMDS=on to use the SCO OpenServer version of the <uname> command. This provides the expected behaviors for SCO OpenServer applications. The SCO OpenServer version of this command is also provided on Open UNIX 8 systems under the OSP feature See the Running SCO OpenServer Applications topic in the UnixWare documentation set.

Standards conformance

uname is conformant with:

ISO/IEC DIS 99452:1992, Information technology Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) Part 2: Shell and Utilities (IEEE Std 1003.21992);
AT&T SVID Issue 2;
X/Open CAE Specification, Commands and Utilities, Issue 4, 1992.