commands detail - u

unalias

  1. remove-item -path alias:cdtemp

uname

uname -s

uname -s in Unix, according to the man page, gives the ‘kernel-version’ of the OS. This is the ‘top-level version’ of the Unix that you’re on. Typical values are ‘Linux’, or ‘AIX’ or ‘HP-UX’. So, on my laptop, typing uname -s gives:

  1. Linux

I’ve only used this when writing a Unix script which have to do slightly different things on different flavours of unix.

Obviously, there’s only one manufacturer for Windows software - Microsoft. So there’s no direct equivalent to uname -s. The closest equivalent on Powershell would I think be:

get-wmiobject -class win32_operatingsystem | select caption

This returns:

  1. caption
  2. -------
  3. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

or

  1. Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro

or

  1. Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Server 2003, Standard Edition

or

  1. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

or

  1. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard

uname -n

According to the Linux help, uname -n does this:

  1. -n, --nodename
  2. print the network node hostname

So, typing uname -n gives

  1. $ uname -n
  2. nancy.one2one.co.uk

I haven’t found a neat equivalent for this in Powershell, but this works:

  1. get-wmiobject -class win32_computersystem | select dnshostname, domain

The output is:

  1. dnshostname domain
  2. ----------- ------
  3. nancy one2one.co.uk

uname -r

uname -r gives the kernel release in Unix. The output varies depending on the flavour of Unix - Wikipedia has a good list of examples

On my system uname -r gives:

  1. 2.6.32-200.20.1.el5uek:

The best Powershell equivalent would seem to be:

  1. get-wmiobject -class win32_operatingsystem | select version

…which gives:

  1. 6.1.7601

The 7601 is Microsoft’s build number.

uname -v

uname -v typically gives the date of the unix build. As far a I can think, there isn’t a Powershell equivalent

uname -m

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what uname -m shows us on Unix. The wikipedia page for uname shows various outputs none of which are hugely useful.

Running uname -m on my server gives:

  1. x86_64

Is this a PowerShell equivalent?

  1. $ get-ciminstance -class cim_computersystem | select SystemType
  2. SystemType
  3. ----------
  4. x64-based PC

uptime

On most, but from memory possibly not all, flavours of *nix ‘uptime’ tells you how long the server has been up and running

  1. $ uptime
  2. 15:54:24 up 9 days, 5:43, 2 users, load average: 0.10, 0.09, 0.07

A rough Powershell equivalent to show how long the server (or PC) has been running is:

  1. get-wmiobject -class win32_operatingsystem | select LastBootUpTime

….of course you can also do

  1. get-wmiobject -class win32_operatingsystem -ComputerName some_other_server |
  2. select LastBootUpTime

…to get the bootup time for a remote server, or PC.