How Do I Know my Red Hat is 32 bit or 64 bit OS?

ashikuzzaman · 03-30-2010, 05:01 PM

I am using Red Hat 4.7 Enterprise Edition. I want to know what command will tell me if my OS (i.e. Kernel I guess) is 32 bit or 64 bit?

I ran the command uname -a and it shows me the following output.

Linux auzzaman-lnx 2.6.9-78.ELsmp #1 SMP Wed Jul 9 15:39:47 EDT 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Don't know how to read it for that. I also ran the command cat /proc/version and also don't know the result it shows below gives any clue or not.

Linux version 2.6.9-78.ELsmp (brewbuilder@hs20-bc2-3.build.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-10)) #1 SMP Wed Jul 9 15:39:47 EDT 2008

XavierP · 03-30-2010, 05:26 PM

i386 and i686 are 32 bit processors. So it looks as though you are running 32 bit RH.

Welcome to LQ

knarfling · 03-30-2010, 05:34 PM

You can also do uname -i
Yours will probably respond with i386
If you had a 64 bit version of the OS installed, it would respond with x86_64

prpednek · 03-31-2010, 03:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knarfling

You can also do uname -i
Yours will probably respond with i386
If you had a 64 bit version of the OS installed, it would respond with x86_64

The command 'arch -k' also displays the architecture of your machine.

kirukan · 03-31-2010, 03:45 AM

This will show whether the OS is 32 or 64

Quote:

#file /usr/bin/file

Output:-

Quote:

/usr/bin/file: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, stripped

DrLove73 · 04-01-2010, 01:37 PM

johnsfine · 04-01-2010, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashikuzzaman

Linux auzzaman-lnx 2.6.9-78.ELsmp #1 SMP Wed Jul 9 15:39:47 EDT 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

As Xavier told you, that is 32 bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prpednek

The command 'arch -k' also displays the architecture of your machine.

man arch tells us

Code:

 arch is deprecated command since release util-linux 2.13. Use uname -m.

But so far as I know, arch still works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kirukan

This will show whether the OS is 32 or 64

Code:

file /usr/bin/file

That's the answer I really don't like.

That tells you whether /usr/bin/file is a 32 bit or 64 bit executable. Assuming the command works and says 64 bit, you can be pretty sure the Linux kernel is 64 bit. But if the answer is 32 bit, it is still quite possible for the Linux kernel to be 64 bit.

Stick with the direct method (uname -m or similar).

T-Dub116 · 01-15-2014, 09:50 AM

# getconf LONG_BIT

rew · 03-29-2017, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsfine

That tells you whether /usr/bin/file is a 32 bit or 64 bit executable. Assuming the command works and says 64 bit, you can be pretty sure the Linux kernel is 64 bit. But if the answer is 32 bit, it is still quite possible for the Linux kernel to be 64 bit.

Stick with the direct method (uname -m or similar).

On my system where I WANT the answer: "32 bit" as my OS is 32 bit, uname -m tells me it is 64-bit, but the file command more-or-less correctly tells me "32-bit".

I'm still looking for something that returns a concise and correct "i386"...

(My machine is 64-bit capable, runs a 64-bit kernel, but has a 32-bit userspace. The reason for this is that I need this machine to compile 32-bit binaries for other systems that may not be 64-bit capable. The reason it runs a 64-bit kernel is that the kernel becomes terribly slow when you have a 32-bit kernel and have 16G ram).

Edit: Too quick in replying... T-Dub116 has the winning trick. (for me). :-)

un1x · 03-29-2017, 12:29 PM

Did u realize the date of post ? ? ?

do not necrobump plz !