NAME

       uname - get the name of the current system

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/utsname.h>

       int uname(struct utsname *name);

DESCRIPTION

       The  uname()  function  shall  store  information  identifying  the  current system in the
       structure pointed to by name.

       The uname() function uses the utsname structure defined in <sys/utsname.h>.

       The uname() function shall return a string naming the  current  system  in  the  character
       array  sysname.  Similarly,  nodename  shall  contain  the  name  of  this  node within an
       implementation-defined communications  network.  The  arrays  release  and  version  shall
       further  identify  the  operating  system.  The  array  machine  shall contain a name that
       identifies the hardware that the system is running on.

       The format of each member is implementation-defined.

RETURN VALUE

       Upon successful completion, a non-negative value shall be returned.  Otherwise,  -1  shall
       be returned and errno set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       No errors are defined.

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

       None.

APPLICATION USAGE

       The  inclusion  of  the  nodename  member  in  this  structure  does  not imply that it is
       sufficient information for interfacing to communications networks.

RATIONALE

       The values of the structure members are not  constrained  to  have  any  relation  to  the
       version  of  this  volume  of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 implemented in the operating system. An
       application should instead depend on  _POSIX_VERSION  and  related  constants  defined  in
       <unistd.h>.

       This  volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001  does  not  define  the sizes of the members of the
       structure and permits them to be of different sizes, although most implementations  define
       them  all  to  be the same size: eight bytes plus one byte for the string terminator. That
       size for nodename is not enough for use with many networks.

       The uname() function originated in System III, System V, and related implementations,  and
       it does not exist in Version 7 or 4.3 BSD. The values it returns are set at system compile
       time in those historical implementations.

       4.3 BSD has gethostname() and gethostid(), which return a  symbolic  name  and  a  numeric
       value,  respectively.  There  are related sethostname() and sethostid() functions that are
       used to set the values the other two functions return. The former functions  are  included
       in this specification, the latter are not.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       The Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/utsname.h>

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this  text  are  reprinted  and  reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
       1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology  --  Portable  Operating  System
       Interface  (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by
       the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and  The  Open  Group.  In  the
       event  of  any  discrepancy  between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group
       Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard  is  the  referee  document.  The
       original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .