ARCH(1) — USER COMMANDS

NAME

arch − display the architecture of the current host

SYNOPSIS

arch
arch −k
arch archname

DESCRIPTION

arch displays the application architecture of the current host system.

Sun systems can be broadly classified by their architectures, which define what executables will run on which machines. A distinction can be made between kernel architecture and application architecture (or, commonly, just “architecture”). Machines which run different kernels due to underlying hardware differences may yet be able to run the same application programs. For example, the MC68020-based Sun-3/160 system and the MC68030-based Sun-3/80 system run different SunOS kernels, but can execute the same applications. One could describe these machines as having “the same application architecture” but “different kernel architectures.”

Executing arch will display the application architecture of the machine, such as sun3, sun4, etc. All machines of the same application architecture will execute the same application programs, or user binaries.

Current Architectures

Application architecture	Kernel architecture	Current Sun System Models
sun2	sun2	2/50, 2/120
sun3	sun3	3/50, 3/60, 3/75, 3/110, 3/140, 3/160, 3/180, 3/260, 3/280
sun3	sun3x	3/80, 3/460, 3/470, 3/480
sun4	sun4	4/110, 4/260, 4/280, SPARCsystem 330
sun386	sun386	386i/150, 386i/250

OPTIONS

−k Display the kernel architecture, such as Sun3, Sun3x, etc. This defines which specific SunOS kernel will run on the machine, and has implications only for programs that depend on the kernel explicitly (for example, ps(1), vmstat(1), etc.).

archname Return “true” (exit status 0) if user binaries for archname can run on the current host system, otherwise, return “false” (exit status 1). This is the preferred method for installation scripts to determine the environment of the host machine; that is, which architecture of a multi-architecture release to install on this machine. archname must be a valid application architecture.

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