Determine If You Are Running the 32 Bit or 64 Bit Kernel in Mac OSX

This article will show you how to tell if you’re running the 32 bit or 64 bit kernel in Mac OS X.

Steps

Using Terminal

1. Launch Terminal app (see Applications/Utilities)
2. Type the following at the prompt: "uname -a" (without the quotes) (note the blank space between "uname" and "-a" strings.
3. Interpret the result. The terminal will display two lines of text. At the end of the 2nd line, you'll find something like either
   • RELEASE_I386 i386 ; the latest "i386" means that you're running 32bits kernel
   • RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64 ; the latest "x86_64" means that you're running 64bits kernel

Related Articles

• Upgrade to Mac OS X Lion
• Install Mac OS X Snow Leopard
• Install Subversion on Mac OS X
• Dual Boot Mac Os X Lion

See also

• Reinstall Mac OS X (Leopard and Earlier)
• Download Applications from the Mac App Store
• Browse and Restore Past Versions of a Document in OS X Lion
• Update Applications from the Mac App Store
• Upgrade to Mac OS X Lion
• Create Applications for the Mac App Store
• Set Up a Guest Account on macOS
• Burn an Audio CD on Mac OS X
• Take a Screenshot in Mac OS X
• Back Up a Mac Without Time Machine

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