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Determine if a UNIX or Linux application is 32-bit or 64-bit

Question & Answer


Question

How can you determine if a UNIX® or Linux® application or operating system is of a 32 bit or 64 bit architecture?

Cause

On occasion it may become necessary to confirm the bit rate of a given UNIX or Linux application to determine if it is compatible with the bit rate of the operating system.

Answer


Note: A 32-bit application can run on a 64-bit operating system, but not vice versa.

  • To determine the bit rate of an application, issue the following command:

    • file application_name


    Example:

    file /usr/local/samba/bin/smbd

    /usr/local/samba/bin/smbd:    ELF 32-bit MSB executable SPARC Version 1


  • To determine the bit rate of the operating system on Solaris, issue the following command:

    • isainfo -kv


    Example:

    isainfo -kv

    64-bit sparcv9 kernel modules

[{"Product":{"code":"SSSH27","label":"Rational ClearCase"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":"Operating System Configurations","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF015","label":"IRIX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"}],"Version":"2002.05.00;2003.06.00;7.0","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB45","label":"Automation"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
16 June 2018

UID

swg21166441

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