[ubuntu-uk] uname -a for 32 bit os on 64 bit cpu

[John Levin]

On 14/11/2011 19:27, Avi Greenbury wrote:
> John Levin wrote:
>
>> I'm writing a bit of documentation, and am having trouble with uname.
>> What does uname -a produce for a 32 bit operating system running on a
>> 64 bit cpu?
>
> uname reports information about the kernel, not the hardware. So for a
> 32-bit kernel it will report 32-bit information (with strings like i386
> and i686), and on a 64-bit kernel it will contain 64-bit sorts of
> strings (x86_64, amd64 etc.)
>
> Precisely what it says depends upon what the person who built the
> kernel told it to, though.
>

Thanks to everyone who replied. Does seem that uname reports the kernel, 
and not the hardware, which is what is suggested by the man page and 
http://ss64.com/bash/uname.html

My bit of documentation, on installing the beta of Zotero, is now published:
http://anterotesis.com/wordpress/2011/11/installing-zotero-standalone-on-ubuntu-11-10/
Comments, clarifications etc welcome.
And also, I hope it is useful for installing other non-deb executables.

John

-- 
John Levin
http://www.anterotesis.com
johnlevin at joindiaspora.com
http://twitter.com/anterotesis