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From: verber@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu (Mark Verber)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: what kind of machine am I
Message-ID: <VERBER.91May8100634@revere.mps.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 8 May 91 14:06:34 GMT
References: <858@lhdsy1.chevron.com>
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Organization: Ohio State University; Physics Department
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In-reply-to: dlm@lhdsy1.chevron.com's message of 7 May 91 18:47:31 GMT

SunOS and various other flavors of UNIX have the 'arch' command.  A
simple solution is to add a version of 'arch' for platforms that
don't have it.  For example, I have added /bin/arch to my DECstations
that says simply:

	#!/bin/sh
	echo "pmax"
	exit 0

Ohio State Univ. Computer Science Dept has a file called /etc/sysinfo
that had useful bits of information such are archtype, kernel's name,
derivation of the OS, how to get the hostname, etc.  We had a shell
script that would parse this file and set appropriate environment
variables.  An example of a /etc/sysinfo:

	sun4:/vmunix:bsd4.2:sunos4.1:/bin/hostname

cheers,
mark