Finding the kernel version

[Sonison James]

Hello,

How do I find the Kernel Version on 11.11?

Thanks and regards
Sonison James

[William Wong_2]

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.

[William Wong_2]

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.

[Pete Randall]

Try "what /stand/vmunix"


Pete

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

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

[Sonison James]

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

[Bill Hassell]

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but any individual patch can change the kernel and thus make the bundle revision somewhat out of date.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.

[Caesar_3]

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

[Pete Randall]

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

[Sonison James]

Hello,

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

Thanks and regards
Sonison James

[Sonison James]

Hello,

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

Thanks and regards
Sonison James

[James R. Ferguson]

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...

[James R. Ferguson]

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...

[James R. Ferguson]

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...

[Sonison James]

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

[James R. Ferguson]

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...

[Bill Hassell]

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.