topic Re: Finding the kernel version in Operating System - HP-UX

Finding the kernel version

Sonison James — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 17:44:56 GMT

Hello,

How do I find the Kernel Version on 11.11?

Thanks and regards
Sonison James

Re: Finding the kernel version

William Wong_2 — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 17:50:49 GMT

If you are trying to find what kernel patches are in the current you are running you can just use the command: what /stand/vmunix. If you want to know whether you are running 32-bit or 64-bit then you can use the command:
getconf KERNEL_BITS and it will return either 32 or 64.

Re: Finding the kernel version

William Wong_2 — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 17:51:12 GMT

Re: Finding the kernel version

Pete Randall — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 17:51:58 GMT

Try "what /stand/vmunix"

Pete

Re: Finding the kernel version

Steven E. Protter — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 17:54:51 GMT

I enjoyed Pete's command a lot.

The answer in my opinion is there is no kernel versioning number system in HP-UX. Perhaps you are looking for something akin to Linux which has a nice easy to understand numbering system.

There is the kernel that ships with the OS and then what we sysadmins have to do to it. We have to patch it, we have to tune it, and what you end up with is quite unique, defying any numbering system.

SEP

Re: Finding the kernel version

Sonison James — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:05:54 GMT

Hello,

I wanted the kernel version, not installed patches. If this is present in the output from "what /stand/vmunix", could you please tell me how to interpret it.

Thanks and regards
Sonison James

Re: Finding the kernel version

Bill Hassell — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:10:14 GMT

The basic kernel version is found with uname -r but after that, only swlist will give you an idea of what is installed and patched. There are patch bundles such as HWE and QPK which can be seen with:

swlist -l bundle

but any individual patch can change the kernel and thus make the bundle revision somewhat out of date. If the kernel is always patched with the SupportPlus patch bundles, then the HWE and QPK revisions are representative of the kernel's version.

Re: Finding the kernel version

Caesar_3 — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:11:43 GMT

Hello!

You know from the uname that it's 11.11
as for the version you can only know the patch
level (pathces version for kernel)
what /stand/vmunix
shows the all patches that is with kernel.

Caesar

Re: Finding the kernel version

Pete Randall — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:13:17 GMT

The kernel version is 11.11. If you require further info on what changes have been made to this base kernel version, the command "what /stand/vmunix" will tell you all the patches that have made changes to the kernel.

Pete

Re: Finding the kernel version

Sonison James — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:14:54 GMT

Hello,

Thanks Steven and Bill for the information. I think that for now I'll do with uname -r.

Thanks and regards
Sonison James

Re: Finding the kernel version

Sonison James — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:23:46 GMT

Hello,

Is the information returned by swlist -l bundle the same as the "Service Pack" equivalent for HP-UX?

Thanks and regards
Sonison James

Re: Finding the kernel version

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:33:50 GMT

HI:

Yes, you could liken the "bundle" to a "service pack". However, please reread Bill Hassell's comments above. Too, it is quite usual to install a SupportPlus bundles, such as the Qualtity Pack (QPK) for 11.0 and *exclude* selected patches because of last minute warning issued against them. The 'swlist -l bundle' still shows the description for the bundle as originally created by HP despite that fact that it is now only a subset.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Finding the kernel version

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:34:12 GMT

Re: Finding the kernel version

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:35:16 GMT

Re: Finding the kernel version

Sonison James — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:59:06 GMT

Hello,

I am trying to determine the OS patches programmatically, however, swlist shows all patches. Is there some way to figure out which of these are OS specific patches?

Thanks and regards
Sonison James

Re: Finding the kernel version

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 19:08:46 GMT

Hi (again):

Patches can be categorized as follows:

"PHKL" = Kernel fileset patches
"PHNE" = Network fileset patches
"PHCO" = Command fileset patches
"PHSS" = SubSystem fileset patches

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Finding the kernel version

Bill Hassell — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 20:21:44 GMT

The patch names (PHKL, etc) do indeed categorize the patches but this was an arbitrary decision made about 15 years ago and was not meant to truly categorize a patch. For instance, is a driver part of the kernel? Then many network patches probably belong to the kernel. And susbsystems may be independent of the kernel (like CDE and Xwindows) but DCE is a subsystem that critically depends on networking and kernel services.

So the answer is not simple at all for HP-UX.