Re: uname -p gives unknown.

[Bob Proulx]

> We are porting a product, whose install script uses the processor name
> as part of a filename.    On the box that we have,  we are seeing
> uname -p  give:  unknown  and   uname -a  gives:
>     Linux linux1 2.2.14-12 #1 Tue Apr 25 13:04:07 EDT 2000 i686 unknown
> 
> (the system date is not set right).
>
> Is there a newer version of uname that we should be using?

The uname command just dumps the utsname kernel data structure.  Do
'man 2 uname' for the structure documentation.  In order to change
those fields you would need to reconfigure your os kernel.  This is
not something that uname can effect.

The data from uname 'nodename', 'release', 'version', 'machine' is
very hard to use portably.  My advice is to avoid those problems.

  HP-UX itchy B.10.20 A 9000/785 2003339568 two-user license
  AIX scratchy 2 4 000083858900
  Linux stubbly 2.2.14-5.0 #1 Tue Mar 7 21:07:39 EST 2000 i686 unknown

The -p option is an extension not part of any standard and I would
avoid using it in any script that I wanted any portability at all.
For portability I would avoid any use of uname other than simply the
default with no options.

See the online standards docs for more information.

  http://www.unix-systems.org/single_unix_specification_v2/xcu/uname.html

Bob