GNU Core Utility: uname

One of GNU core utility commands is uname. It is a handly tool that gives some useful information about the system.

Image credit: maizure.org

Manual:

uname
UNAME(1)                                                             User Commands                                                             UNAME(1)
NAME
       uname - print system information
SYNOPSIS
       uname [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION
       Print certain system information.  With no OPTION, same as -s.
       -a, --all
              print all information, in the following order, except omit -p and -i if unknown:
       -s, --kernel-name
              print the kernel name
       -n, --nodename
              print the network node hostname
       -r, --kernel-release
              print the kernel release
       -v, --kernel-version
              print the kernel version
       -m, --machine
              print the machine hardware name
       -p, --processor
              print the processor type (non-portable)
       -i, --hardware-platform
              print the hardware platform (non-portable)
       -o, --operating-system
              print the operating system
       --help display this help and exit
       --version
              output version information and exit
AUTHOR
       Written by David MacKenzie.
REPORTING BUGS
       GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       Report uname translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
       arch(1), uname(2)
       Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/uname>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) uname invocation'

To get the name of the kernel:

$ uname -s
Linux

To verify if you're running a 64-bit system use uname tool:

$ uname -m 

Output:

• 64-bit Intel/AMD system: x86_64
• 64-bit ARM architecture: aarch64

If you come across instructions about how to install docker-compose on Linux, you'll see an example how to use uname in a command which downloads a binary built for your system:

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.27.4/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose