Re: uname bug?

[Bob Proulx]

> When I run "uname -a", it reports my local time +4 hours. My timezone is 
> GMT+400, system clock not set to GMT. Maybe it adds 4 hours to the 
> system time two times? "date" reports normal time (system+4), and "uname 
> -a" does system+8

The uname command is not reporting the time.  It is reporting your
"operating system version" which is set to whatever your operating
system version is set to.  On HP-UX this tends to be mundane things
like "A" or "B".  On IBM AIX this is usually the 2 of 4.2 or some
such.  It can be anything considered useful.

On Linux this value is usually set to the time that the kernel was
compiled, a long date string.  Which is unusual among operating
systems but gives more useful information.  This is a static string
compiled into the kernel that freezes the time the kernel was compiled
forever.

In general I recommend that people avoid using the uname output for
anything other than the default uname output (same as uname -s) which
prints the kernel name.  It is an old command and just does not fit
well in the modern era.  But removing it or changing it would break
legacy programs that use it.

Bob