uname output ?

pll at lanminds.com pll at lanminds.com
Thu Aug 15 14:08:14 EDT 2002


In a message dated: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 13:55:20 EDT
bscott at ntisys.com said:

>On Thu, 15 Aug 2002, at 1:21pm, pll at lanminds.com wrote:
>> Does anyone know what happened between the 2.4.18 and 2.4.19 kernels 
>> that changed the output of 'uname':
>> 
>> 	client:/usr/src/linux# uname --version
>> 	uname (sh-utils) 2.0.12
>> 	
>> 	pll at tater:~$ uname --version
>> 	uname (GNU sh-utils) 2.0.11
>
>  Er, are you sure it is not the different version of *uname* that is
>causing the different answers?  That would seem far more likely to me.


Errrrrr.  I don't know how I missed that.  I specifically checked the 
versions and could have sworn they were both 2.0.11.  I guess my 
vgrep is faulty, time to apt-get upgrade vgrep ;)

Yep, it appears that uname got more options, and I was looking at the 
man/info for the old one installed on my laptop.

The second 'unknown' is the '-i' or --hardware-platform, and the
GNU/Linux label is the '-o' or '--operating-system'.

<stallman rant mode=on>

Now, last I checked, Stallman wanted to call the "entire system" GNU/Linux
because so much of the environment is built upon GNU software.
However, in the context of 'uname' would "operating system" also 
refer to the kernel, and therefore should be identified as just 
'Linux'?  Which would also make it redundant with --kernel-name (-s), 
IMO.

I can't think of a scenario where one would be running a GNU/Linux 
"operating system" with a kernel which was not Linux?  Sure, you 
could run the Hurd kernel, but that wouldn't be GNU/Linux, would it?

Can anyone think of a scenario where the kernel name and the OS name 
would or should not be the same, at least in the Linux world?

(I suppose one could argue that Sun ships the Solaris Operating 
Environment, and therefore, the "kernel name" might be SunOS, but the 
"operating system" would be Solaris, but IMO, the whole SunOS vs. 
Solaris thing is bunch of marketing crap.)

<stallman rant mode=off>
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
--
	It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing,
   but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away.

	 If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!





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