CALL FOR UNAME OUTPUT FROM EVERYWHERE!

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <dfLyw#3mPN5p=eric at snark.UUCP> eric at snark.UUCP (Eric S. Raymond) writes:
>On AT&T and other POSIX-conforming systems I want to use `uname' as a way to
>get processor/os/version in a reasonably standard format. To do this, I need
>to know what variations in uname output to expect.

Forget it -- years ago I tried to get the vendors to cooperate on
standardizing the use of the various uname fields, which AT&T
neglected to do.  Unfortunately many of them made what appear to
be random choices in their use of the fields.  It wasn't helped
any by the fact that vendor OS version numbers didn't match the
closest UNIX System V version numbers, and the latter have been
so disorganized that very few people can correctly interpret one.
E.g. "UNIX System V Release 2 Version 2 for DEC VAX", not to be
confused with SVR2.2 for DEC VAX, nor with SVR2V2 for 3B20, nor
with DEC's Ultrix-32 for the VAX (any release).

If you want such a facility, you or 1003.2 will have to design
it yourself.  uname is hopelessly broken as it now exists.