UNAME(2)                            Linux Programmer's Manual                            UNAME(2)



NAME
       uname - get name and information about current kernel

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/utsname.h>

       int uname(struct utsname *buf);

DESCRIPTION
       uname() returns system information in the structure pointed to by buf.  The utsname struct
       is defined in <sys/utsname.h>:

           struct utsname {
               char sysname[];    /* Operating system name (e.g., "Linux") */
               char nodename[];   /* Name within "some implementation-defined
                                     network" */
               char release[];    /* Operating system release (e.g., "2.6.28") */
               char version[];    /* Operating system version */
               char machine[];    /* Hardware identifier */
           #ifdef _GNU_SOURCE
               char domainname[]; /* NIS or YP domain name */
           #endif
           };

       The length of the arrays in a struct utsname is unspecified (see NOTES);  the  fields  are
       terminated by a null byte ('\0').

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EFAULT buf is not valid.

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4, POSIX.1-2001.  There is no uname() call in 4.3BSD.

       The domainname member (the NIS or YP domain name) is a GNU extension.

NOTES
       This  is  a  system  call, and the operating system presumably knows its name, release and
       version.  It also knows what hardware it runs on.  So, four of the fields  of  the  struct
       are  meaningful.   On the other hand, the field nodename is meaningless: it gives the name
       of the present machine in some undefined network, but typically machines are in more  than
       one network and have several names.  Moreover, the kernel has no way of knowing about such
       things, so it has to be told what to answer here.   The  same  holds  for  the  additional
       domainname field.

       To  this  end, Linux uses the system calls sethostname(2) and setdomainname(2).  Note that
       there is no standard that says that the hostname set by sethostname(2) is the same  string
       as  the  nodename  field  of  the struct returned by uname() (indeed, some systems allow a
       256-byte hostname and an 8-byte nodename), but this is true on Linux.  The same holds  for
       setdomainname(2) and the domainname field.

       The  length of the fields in the struct varies.  Some operating systems or libraries use a
       hardcoded 9 or 33 or 65 or 257.  Other systems use SYS_NMLN  or  _SYS_NMLN  or  UTSLEN  or
       _UTSNAME_LENGTH.   Clearly,  it  is  a  bad  idea  to use any of these constants; just use
       sizeof(...).  Often 257 is chosen in order to have room for an internet hostname.

       Part of the utsname information is also accessible via /proc/sys/kernel/{ostype, hostname,
       osrelease, version, domainname}.

   C library/kernel ABI differences
       Over  time,  increases  in  the size of the utsname structure have led to three successive
       versions  of  uname():   sys_olduname()   (slot   __NR_oldolduname),   sys_uname()   (slot
       __NR_olduname), and sys_newuname() (slot __NR_uname).  The first one used length 9 for all
       fields; the second used 65; the third also uses 65 but adds  the  domainname  field.   The
       glibc  uname()  wrapper  function hides these details from applications, invoking the most
       recent version of the system call provided by the kernel.

SEE ALSO
       uname(1), getdomainname(2), gethostname(2), namespaces(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the
       project,  information  about  reporting  bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux                                       2014-09-21                                   UNAME(2)