[TUHS] uname meaning

[segaloco via TUHS]

On Tuesday, September 15th, 2026 at 08:37, Marco Moock via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:

> Am 15.09.26 um 17:34 schrieb Ron Natalie:
> > Yes.   Checking the System III man page for it:
> > 
> > 
> >   NAME
> > uname - print name of current UNIX
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Linux and FreeBSD do not mention this, they call it operating system 
> implementation (FreeBSD) oder just system information (Fedora)
> 
> -- 
> Gruß
> Marco
> 
> Junk-Mail bitte an trashcan at stinkedores.dorfdsl.de
>

My understanding is this either originates with PWB or SCCS UNIX.  PWB 1.0 has a "pwbname(I)" utility that operates along similar lines.  The underlying structure feeding uname(1) is called "utsname" owing to its UNIX/TS origins.  Eventually this was used to identify the variant of system (System V vs. BSD vs. AIX vs. UTS vs....etc) but in the early days it seems it may have been used a little more like a hostname.  Historic documentation implies USG UNIX may have had a similar mechanism but I don't think its in the manuals.

- Matt G.