ARCH(1) | General Commands Manual | ARCH(1)

# NAME

`arch`, `machine` — print architecture type

# SYNOPSIS

`arch` | [`-ks`]

`machine` | [`-a`]

# DESCRIPTION

The `arch` and `machine` commands display the machine's architecture in slightly different ways. `arch` by default displays the application architecture, defined by both the operating system and the instruction set architecture, while `machine` displays the kernel architecture (without the operating system part). Note that both commands output the target architecture as opposed to uname(1) which describes the host. This is useful for dynamic discovery of the target architecture in build or configuration scripts needing to work in cross-compilation environments.

The options for `arch` are as follows:

`-k`
  Display the kernel architecture instead of application architecture.
`-s`
  Display the chosen architecture in a short form, i.e., without the operating system prefixed.

The options for `machine` are as follows:

`-a`
  Display the application architecture instead of the kernel architecture.

# SEE ALSO

uname(1)

July 6, 2017 | Debian