NAME

uname — get system identification

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/utsname.h>

int
uname(struct utsname *name);

DESCRIPTION

The uname() function stores NUL-terminated strings of information identifying the current system into the structure referenced by name.

The utsname structure is defined in the <sys/utsname.h> header file, and contains the following members:

sysname: Name of the operating system implementation.
nodename: Network name of this machine.
release: Release level of the operating system.
version: Version level of the operating system.
machine: Machine hardware platform.

These are the same strings that can be displayed with uname(1). Because their format and meaning depends on the operating system, trying to parse or interpret them is discouraged in portable code. The only reasonable way an application program can use them is for displaying them to the user.

RETURN VALUES

The uname() function returns a non-negative value if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

The uname() function may fail and set errno for any of the errors specified for the library function sysctl(2).

STANDARDS

The uname() function conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (“POSIX.1”).

HISTORY

The uname() function first appeared in PWB/UNIX 1.0 and was reimplemented for 4.4BSD.