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 30.2 Platform Type Identification
 =================================
 
 You can use the `uname' function to find out some information about the
 type of computer your program is running on.  This function and the
 associated data type are declared in the header file `sys/utsname.h'.  
 
    As a bonus, `uname' also gives some information identifying the
 particular system your program is running on.  This is the same
 information which you can get with functions targetted to this purpose
 described in  Host Identification.
 
  -- Data Type: struct utsname
      The `utsname' structure is used to hold information returned by
      the `uname' function.  It has the following members:
 
     `char sysname[]'
           This is the name of the operating system in use.
 
     `char release[]'
           This is the current release level of the operating system
           implementation.
 
     `char version[]'
           This is the current version level within the release of the
           operating system.
 
     `char machine[]'
           This is a description of the type of hardware that is in use.
 
           Some systems provide a mechanism to interrogate the kernel
           directly for this information.  On systems without such a
           mechanism, the GNU C library fills in this field based on the
           configuration name that was specified when building and
           installing the library.
 
           GNU uses a three-part name to describe a system
           configuration; the three parts are CPU, MANUFACTURER and
           SYSTEM-TYPE, and they are separated with dashes.  Any
           possible combination of three names is potentially
           meaningful, but most such combinations are meaningless in
           practice and even the meaningful ones are not necessarily
           supported by any particular GNU program.
 
           Since the value in `machine' is supposed to describe just the
           hardware, it consists of the first two parts of the
           configuration name: `CPU-MANUFACTURER'.  For example, it
           might be one of these:
 
                `"sparc-sun"', `"i386-ANYTHING"', `"m68k-hp"',
                `"m68k-sony"', `"m68k-sun"', `"mips-dec"'
 
     `char nodename[]'
           This is the host name of this particular computer.  In the
           GNU C library, the value is the same as that returned by
           `gethostname'; see  Host Identification.
 
           gethostname() is implemented with a call to uname().
 
     `char domainname[]'
           This is the NIS or YP domain name.  It is the same value
           returned by `getdomainname'; see  Host Identification.
           This element is a relatively recent invention and use of it
           is not as portable as use of the rest of the structure.
 
 
  -- Function: int uname (struct utsname *INFO)
      The `uname' function fills in the structure pointed to by INFO
      with information about the operating system and host machine.  A
      non-negative value indicates that the data was successfully stored.
 
      `-1' as the value indicates an error.  The only error possible is
      `EFAULT', which we normally don't mention as it is always a
      possibility.
 

Info Catalog

(libc.info.gz) Host Identification

(libc.info.gz) System Management

(libc.info.gz) Filesystem Handling