The default values provided by uname(1) can be over-ridden on a running system utilizing environment variables. The uname(1) manpage identifies this behavior in the “Environment” section stating:

An environment variable composed of the string UNAME_ followed by any flag to the uname utility (except for -a) will allow the corresponding data to be set to the contents of the environment variable.

I would like to call out the environment variables specifically and identify what is changed when these environment variables are utilized. They are as follows:

• UNAME_s: The name of the operating system implementation
• UNAME_n: The name of the system
• UNAME_r: The current release level of the operating system
• UNAME_v: The version level of this release of the operating system
• UNAME_m: The type of the current hardware platform
• UNAME_p: The type of the machine processor architecture
• UNAME_i: The kernel ident