'\" te
.\" Copyright (c) 2002, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
.TH arch 1 "21 Oct 2002" "SunOS 5.11" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
arch \- display the architecture of the current host
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fBarch\fR [\fB-k\fR | \fIarchname\fR]
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The \fBarch\fR utility displays the application architecture of the current host system. Due to extensive historical use of this command without any options, all SunOS 5.\fIx\fR SPARC based systems will return "sun4" as their application architecture. Use of this command is discouraged. See NOTES section below.
.sp
.LP
Systems can be broadly classified by their \fBarchitectures\fR, which define what executables will run on which machines. A distinction can be made between \fBkernel\fR architecture and \fBapplication\fR architecture (or, commonly, just "architecture"). Machines that run different kernels due to underlying hardware differences may be able to run the same application programs.
.SH OPTIONS
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB-k\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
.rt  
Displays the kernel architecture, such as \fBsun4u\fR.  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, \fBps\fR(1)).
.RE

.SH OPERANDS
.sp
.LP
The following operand is supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fIarchname\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 12n
.rt  
Use \fIarchname\fR to determine whether the application binaries for this application architecture can run on the current host system. The  \fIarchname\fR must be a valid application architecture, such as  \fBsun4\fR,\fB i86pc\fR, and so forth.
.sp
If \fBapplication\fR binaries for \fIarchname\fR can run on the current host system, \fBTRUE\fR (\fB0\fR) is returned. Otherwise,  \fBFALSE\fR (\fB1\fR) is returned.
.RE

.SH EXIT STATUS
.sp
.LP
The following exit values are returned:
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
.rt  
Successful completion.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB>0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
.rt  
An error occurred.
.RE

.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
tab() box;
cw(2.75i) |cw(2.75i) 
lw(2.75i) |lw(2.75i) 
.
ATTRIBUTE TYPEATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Availabilitysystem/core-os
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
\fBmach\fR(1), \fBps\fR(1), \fBuname\fR(1), \fBattributes\fR(5)
.SH NOTES
.sp
.LP
This command is provided for compatibility with previous releases and its use is discouraged. Instead, the \fBuname\fR command is recommended. See  \fBuname\fR(1) for usage information.