uname(2)

NAME

uname(), setuname() — get information about computer system; set node name (system name)

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/utsname.h>

int uname(struct utsname *name);

int setuname(const char *name, size_t namelen);

DESCRIPTION

uname()

The uname() system call places information identifying the computer system in the utsname structure pointed to by name.

The utsname structure, defined in <sys/utsname.h>, is set up as follows:

#define UTSLEN  9 
#define SNLEN  15 

char sysname[UTSLEN]; 
char nodename[UTSLEN]; 
char release[UTSLEN]; 
char version[UTSLEN]; 
char machine[UTSLEN]; 
char idnumber[SNLEN]; 

Each field is a null-terminated string.

The sysname field contains the name of the operating system, HP-UX on standard HP-UX systems.

The nodename field contains the name by which the computer system is known in a communications network.

The release field contains the release identifier of the operating system, such as A.09.01.

The version field contains additional information about the operating system. This value can change in future releases. The first character of the version field identifies the license level:

A: Two-user system
B: 16-user system
C: 32-user system
D: 64-user system
E: 8-user system
U: 128-user, 256-user, or unlimited-user system

The machine field contains the hardware and model identifiers of the computer system. On IA-64 systems, this option always returns ia64.

The idnumber field contains a unique identification number within that class of hardware, possibly a hardware or software serial number. This field contains a null string if there is no identification number. On IA-64 systems this number may not be unique. To get a unique id, use the _CS_MACHINE_IDENT option of confstr(3C).

setuname()

The setuname() system call sets the node name (system name), as returned in the nodename field of the utsname structure, to name, which has a length of namelen characters. This is usually executed by /sbin/init.d/hostname at system boot time. Names are limited to UTSLEN - 1 characters; UTSLEN is defined in <sys/utsname.h>.

RETURN VALUE

uname() and setuname() return the following values:

n: Successful completion. n is a nonnegative value.
-1: Failure. errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

If uname() or setuname() fails, errno is set to one of the following values.

[EFAULT]: name points to an illegal address. The reliable detection of this error is implementation dependent.
[EPERM]: setuname() was attempted by a process lacking appropriate privileges.

AUTHOR

uname() was developed by AT&T and HP.

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

uname(): AES, SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, FIPS 151-2, POSIX.1