arch

NAME
     arch - display the architecture of the current host


SYNOPSIS
     arch [-k | archname]


DESCRIPTION
     The arch utility displays the  application  architecture  of
     the  current host system. Due to extensive historical use of
     this command without any options, all SunOS 5.x SPARC  based
     systems  will  return  "sun4" as their application architec-
     ture. Use of this command is discouraged. See NOTES  section
     below.


     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  "architec-
     ture"). Machines that run different kernels due to  underly-
     ing  hardware differences may be able to run the same appli-
     cation programs.


OPTIONS
     -k       Displays the kernel architecture,  such  as  sun4u.
              This  defines  which specific SunOS kernel will run
              on the machine, and has implications only for  pro-
              grams  that  depend  on  the kernel explicitly (for
              example, ps(1)).


OPERANDS
     The following operand is supported:


     archname        Use archname to determine whether the appli-
                     cation  binaries for this application archi-
                     tecture can run on the current host  system.
                     The   archname  must  be a valid application
                     architecture, such as  sun4, i86pc,  and  so
                     forth.


                     If application binaries for archname can run
                     on  the  current  host  system,  TRUE (0) is
                     returned. Otherwise,  FALSE (1) is returned.