Is it possible to detect 32 bit vs 64 bit in a bash script?

Question

I am writing a bash script to deal with some installations in an automated way... I have the possibility of getting one such program in 32 or 64 bit binary... is it possible to detect the machine architecture from bash so I can select the correct binary?

This will be for Ubuntu machines.

Answer 1

Does

uname -a

give you anything you can use? I don't have a 64-bit machine to test on.

---

Note from Mike Stone: This works, though specifically

uname -m

Will give "x86_64" for 64 bit, and something else for other 32 bit types (in my 32 bit VM, it's "i686").

Answer 2

You could do something like this:

if $(uname -a | grep 'x86_64'); then
  echo "I'm 64-bit"
else
  echo "I'm 32-bit"
fi

Answer 3

MACHINE_TYPE=`uname -m`
if [ ${MACHINE_TYPE} == 'x86_64' ]; then
  # 64-bit stuff here
else
  # 32-bit stuff here
fi

Answer 4

Yes, uname -a should do the trick. see: http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/win/64bit.html.

Answer 5

slot8(msd):/opt # uname -a
Linux slot8a 2.6.21_mvlcge500-electra #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jun 18 16:29:33 \
EDT 2008 ppc64 GNU/Linux

Remember, there are other CPU architectures than Intel/AMD...