Can anyone please let me know the meaning of output of uname -a ?
I am totally new to unix or linux and just thinking to start learning.
When I run uname -a the output I get is -
"Linux blx28ap01 2.6.18-238.12.1.el5 #1 SMP Sat May 7 20:18:50 EDT 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux"
I want to know this as I want to know what I need to start studying....
You will find that info under:
man uname
what do I start learning Unix or Linux then ..?? Just confused.
Are you asking if the system you posted the output from is Unix or Linux?
That is Linux...as shown by the output but if I learn UNIX....would I be missing something from LINUX or vice-versa...that's what I wanted to know..
Of course there are many aspects in which Linux and UNIX are differing. Even UNIX is not a single system, but three major commercial UNIX system can be found on many companies servers, which are AIX, HP-UX and Solaris and they differ quite a lot among themselves. But if you are just beginning your adventure with Linux/UNIX it is better to start with Linux, as the basics are very similar and it is much easier to obtain than commercial Unixes.
Thanks bartus11 that is hugely helpful.....I want to start right away.....which book should I refer....I guess from my uname -a output, the Linux I am using is GNU/LINUX....can you please please suggest some good book on this.......Thank you...
Every Linux on the planet is GNU/Linux (as far as I know:)) This particular distribution seems to be Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (.el5 in the output of uname -a). As for the books, there are plenty of various books taking the subject of Linux administration. I would suggest first going for some basic book covering Linux fundamentals, like managing files, working with the shell etc. After that you can move to something more specific, maybe something about administering RHEL5, so you can practice on your server. It is important to know that Linux comes in many different distributions, so books covering one might be not very accurate for another.