"uname" - Display System Information

Linux Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟"uname" - Display System Information

This section provides a tutorial example on how to display operating system information using the 'uname' command on Linux systems.

The first thing you should do on a new Linux computer is to gather its system information as shown in this tutorial.

1. The most commonly used command to display Linux operating system information is the "uname" command.

(on my CentOS 8 computer)
centos8$ uname -mprsv
Linux 4.18.0-147.el8.x86_64
   #1 SMP Wed Dec 4 21:51:45 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64

(on my CentOS 6 computer)
centos6$ uname -mprsv
Linux 2.6.32-696.20.1.el6.i686 #1 SMP Fri Jan 26 18:13:32 UTC 2018
   i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux i386

(on my macOS 10 computer)
macos$ uname -mnprsv
Darwin 16.7.0 Darwin Kernel Version 16.7.0:
   Sun Jun  2 20:26:31 PDT 2019; root:xnu-3789.73.50~1/RELEASE_X86_64
   x86_64 i386

2. On most Linux systems, the operating system information is accessible via a special file called /proc/version. You can use the "cat" command to display it:

(on my CentOS 8 computer)
centos8$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 4.18.0-147.el8.x86_64
  (mockbuild@kbuilder.bsys.centos.org)
  (gcc version 8.3.1 20190507 (Red Hat 8.3.1-4) (GCC))
  #1 SMP Wed Dec 4 21:51:45 UTC 2019

(on my CentOS 6 computer)
centos6$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.32-696.20.1.el6.i686
  (mockbuild@x86_64_01.bsys.centos.org)
  (gcc version 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-18) (GCC))
  #1 SMP Fri Jan 26 18:13:32 UTC 2018

3. The CPU architecture is a key parameter when installing Linux systems and applications. You can use the "arch" command to display it:

(on my CentOS 8 computer)
centos8$ arch
x86_64

(on my CentOS 6 computer)
centos6$ arch
i686

(on my macOS 10 computer)
macOS$ arch
i386

4. Other commands that can be used to check system information are:

herong$ cat /etc/*elease

  CentOS Linux release 8.1.1911 (Core)
  NAME="CentOS Linux"
  VERSION="8 (Core)"
  ID="centos"
  ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"
  VERSION_ID="8"
  PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
  PRETTY_NAME="CentOS Linux 8 (Core)"
  ...

herong$ hostnamectl
  Operating System: CentOS Linux 8 (Core)
       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:centos:centos:8
            Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-147.el8.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

herong$ rpm -q centos-release
  centos-release-8.1-1.1911.0.8.el8.x86_64