uname

The  uname command displays the name, node, version, release, and hardware type of the current UNIX operating system. By default only the system's name is displayed. The most common use of uname is to find out which system you are using. Many users set their shell prompt (PS1) to the name of their system. This is especially useful if you have access to multiple systems.

General format

     uname [ option ]

In Linux the following options are supported:

-a, --all

print all information, in the following order, except omit -p and -i if unknown:

-s, --kernel-name

print the kernel name

-n, --nodename

print the network node hostname

-r, --kernel-release

print the kernel release

-v, --kernel-version

print the kernel version

-m, --machine

print the machine hardware name

-p, --processor

print the processor type or "unknown"

-i, --hardware-platform

print the hardware platform or "unknown"

-o, --operating-system

print the operating system

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

The uname command writes to the standard output.

Examples

In this activity you use the uname command to display all of the information about your system. Begin at the shell prompt.

1.  Type uname -a and press Return to display the information about your system.

  cj> uname -a
  cj   cj  4.0  1  80386

The first cj is the system name, the second is the nodename, 4.0 is the UNIX release, 1 is the version, and 80386 is the hardware type.

2.  Type PS1="$" and press Return. This resets your shell prompt to the system default.

3.  Type PS1="`uname`>" and press Return. This sets your shell prompt to the name of your system.

  $ PS="`uname`>"
  cj> _

4.  Turn to Module 85 to continue the learning sequence.

uname hack

Here is an example:

#!/bin/bash
uname-wrapped $@ | sed 's/2.6.7/2.6.9/'

In case of Red Hat and Oracle linux much depends on how tha application chacks for version. It it check via /proc/version that hack does not help.

If it checks uname plus /etc/ * release files you need in additon to replace /etc/*version files. For example in order to emulate Oracle 5.6 on Oracle 6 which is nessesary for ther installation of Oracle LDAP server you can try:

EOL 5:

uname

Linux lusand04.andipc.basf-corp.com 2.6.18-238.5.1.0.1.el5 #1 SMP Tue Mar 1 21:21:14 EST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Files in /etc

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 64 Jan 18 12:58 enterprise-release
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32 Jan 14 18:28 oracle-release
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 54 Jan 18 12:58 redhat-release
# cat enterprise-release
Enterprise Linux Enterprise Linux Server release 5.6 (Carthage)
# cat oracle-release
Oracle Linux Server release 5.6
cat redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.6 (Tikanga)

EOL 6:

uname

Linux lusand05.andipc.basf-corp.com 2.6.32-100.28.11.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Apr 13 12:42:21 EDT 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Files in /etc:

-rw-r--r--.  1 root root   32 Jan 29 12:20 oracle-release
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root   55 May  2 16:16 redhat-release
# cat oracle-release
Oracle Linux Server release 6.0
---: /root/etc
# cat redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.0 (Santiago)
---: /root/etc

NEWS CONTENTS

• 190321 : changing uname -r output by 7.e.Q ( changing uname -r output, )
• 190321 : The uname hack revisited by Kevin Krumwiede ( The uname hack revisited, )

Old News ;-)

changing uname -r output by 7.e.Q

Yes there is. rename your original uname to something like uname-wrapped and create a script in the same location called uname, that runs this uname-wrapped binary with the parameters and output alterations you need. For example, if you want to change the kernel version inside the output of uname from "2.6.7" to "2.6.9" put the following into your uname script: Code:

#!/bin/bash
uname-wrapped $@ | sed 's/2.6.7/2.6.9/'

this is called "uname hack"... you may google for it.

The uname hack revisited by Kevin Krumwiede

Jul 19, 2001 | Linux From Scratch!

I always wondered why, instead of hacking uname itself, it can't be
temporarily renamed or moved and replaced with a script that fakes the -m
option and calls the original for everything else?

raw (hmm, where's my bash book?):

#!/bin/sh
if [ "$1" = '-m' ]; then
echo 'i386'
else
/usr/bin/uname-orig $@
fi

-----Original Message-----
From: lfs-discuss-owner at linuxfromscratch.org
[mailto:lfs-discuss-owner at linuxfromscratch.org]On Behalf Of Jeroen
Coumans
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 7:03 PM
To: lfs-discuss at linuxfromscratch.org
Subject: Re: BASH static compilation using termcap library

> Also I am installing LFS into a second hard-drive which I
> would like to moe into an old i386 I have lying around
> (Just for fun really). I noticed that Bash seemed to find
> the i586 equivalent processor in the computer it is
> currently resident in. Is this going to completely screw
> me up? i.e. has it compiled for pentium PC?

This could get you into trouble. I remember there was a uname-hack exactly
for this kind of cross-compiling. Search the mail-archives for
cross-compiling and uname, it should come up. Cross-compiling has gotten a
lot of people into trouble, but there are also lots of hints in the
archives.
Good luck!

uname lies ... - Jon Haslam's Weblog

Well, it's been a while to say the least but I think it's about time to put fingers to keys again and see what comes forth ...

I've mentioned before some of the great things that can be achieved with destructive actions. Indeed many good examples are popping up - check out this cool example from Chris Gerhards blog. Today we'll just take a quick look at another one (I actually have a bunch which I'll try and write-up over the next few weeks).

In the UK we have run a series of events called Make-It-Fly which I've been involved with. Last week I did a session on DTrace which I hope everyone who was present enjoyed (I did anyway!). At the events I usually do quite a bit of hands on demo with most of it being hand cranked. However, one of the scripts I use that always gets a laugh is the following one which I don't hand crank as I can never remember the offsets ... If you've ever wanted to get uname(1) to return something different to normal then this is what you need:

#!/usr/sbin/dtrace -s

#pragma D option destructive

syscall::uname:entry
{
        self->addr = arg0;
}

syscall::uname:return
{
        copyoutstr("SunOS", self->addr, 257);
        copyoutstr("PowerPC", self->addr+257, 257);
        copyoutstr("5.5.1", self->addr+(257*2), 257);
        copyoutstr("gate:1996-12-01", self->addr+(257*3), 257);
        copyoutstr("PPC", self->addr+(257*4), 257);
}

Before we have:

# uname -a
SunOS homer 5.10 SunOS_Development sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-5_10

and like magic we morph into something else when the above script is ran:

# uname -a
SunOS PowerPC 5.5.1 gate:1996-12-01 PPC sparc SUNW,Ultra-5_10

Here at Sun we often test pieces of software on versions of Solaris that return something different to that which the software is expecting. Previously I would LD_PRELOAD a library in with my own uname hack. Now I can not only do this without bothering the application but I can present different uname information to different applications/users/whatever as I can predicate accordingly!

Note, that the above script isn't quite complete as it returns the incorrect ISA information. This is me being idle and a bit of twiddling with sysinfo() is all that's needed. Maybe another day.

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Last modified: March 12, 2019