x86_648
Change reported architecture in new program environment and/or set personality flags
Part of setarch(8).
Usage
setarch [arch]
[options]
[program
[argument ...]]
arch [options]
[program
[argument ...]]
Overview
setarch modifies the execution domain and process personality flags.
The execution domain currently only affects the output of uname -m. For example, on an AMD64 system, running setarch i386 program will cause program to see i686 instead of x86_64 as the machine type. The default program is /bin/sh.
Since version 2.33, the arch command-line argument is optional and setarch may be used to change personality flags (ADDR_LIMIT_3GB, SHORT_INODE, etc) without modification of the execution domain.
Options
-
--list -
List the architectures that
setarchknows about. Whethersetarchcan actually set each of these architectures depends on the running kernel.
-
--show[=personality] -
Show the currently active personality and flags. If the personality argument is provided, that personality is shown instead of the current one. personality is a hexadecimal number whose possible values are described in
sys/personality.h.
-
-p, --pid=pid -
When used with
--show, show the personality and flags of the specified process.
-
--uname-2.6 -
Causes the specified program to see a kernel version number beginning with 2.6. Turns on
UNAME26.
-
-v, --verbose -
Be verbose.
-
-3, --3gb -
The specified program should use a maximum of 3GB of address space. Supported on x86. Turns on
ADDR_LIMIT_3GB.
-
--4gb -
This option has no effect. It is retained for backward compatibility only, and may be removed in future releases.
-
-B, --32bit -
Limit the address space to 32 bits to emulate hardware. Supported on ARM and Alpha. Turns on
ADDR_LIMIT_32BIT.
-
-F, --fdpic-funcptrs -
Treat user-space function pointers to signal handlers as pointers to address descriptors. This option has no effect on architectures that do not support FDPIC ELF binaries. In kernel v4.14 support is limited to ARM, Blackfin, Fujitsu FR-V, and SuperH CPU architectures.
-
-I, --short-inode -
Obsolete bug emulation flag. Turns on
SHORT_INODE.
-
-L, --addr-compat-layout -
Provide legacy virtual address space layout. Use when the program binary does not have
PT_GNU_STACKELF header. Turns onADDR_COMPAT_LAYOUT.
-
-R, --addr-no-randomize -
Disables randomization of the virtual address space. Turns on
ADDR_NO_RANDOMIZE.
-
-S, --whole-seconds -
Obsolete bug emulation flag. Turns on
WHOLE_SECONDS.
-
-T, --sticky-timeouts -
This makes select(2), pselect(2), and ppoll(2) system calls preserve the timeout value instead of modifying it to reflect the amount of time not slept when interrupted by a signal handler. Use when program depends on this behavior. For more details see the timeout description in select(2) manual page. Turns on
STICKY_TIMEOUTS.
-
-X, --read-implies-exec -
If this is set then mmap(2)
PROT_READwill also add thePROT_EXECbit - as expected by legacy x86 binaries. Notice that the ELF loader will automatically set this bit when it encounters a legacy binary. Turns onREAD_IMPLIES_EXEC.
-
-Z, --mmap-page-zero -
SVr4 bug emulation that will set mmap(2) page zero as read-only. Use when program depends on this behavior, and the source code is not available to be fixed. Turns on
MMAP_PAGE_ZERO.
-
-h, --help -
Display help text and exit.
-
-V, --version -
Display version and exit.
Examples
setarch --addr-no-randomize mytestprog setarch ppc32 rpmbuild --target=ppc --rebuild foo.src.rpm setarch ppc32 -vL3 rpmbuild --target=ppc --rebuild bar.src.rpm setarch ppc32 --32bit rpmbuild --target=ppc --rebuild foo.src.rpm setarch --show setarch --show=$(cat /proc/9284/personality) setarch --show --pid 9284
History
- Arch Linux 2026-11-01: the text shown here
- Debian 13 (Trixie)
- Debian 12 (Bookworm)
- Debian 11 (Bullseye)
- Debian 10 (Buster)
- Debian 9 (Stretch)
- Debian 8 (Jessie)
- Debian 7 (Wheezy)
- Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)
- Debian 5.0 (Lenny)
--32bit since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
--4gb since Debian 8 (Jessie);
--addr-compat-layout since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
--addr-no-randomize since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
--fdpic-funcptrs since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
--list since Debian 8 (Jessie);
--mmap-page-zero since Debian 8 (Jessie);
--pid since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
--read-implies-exec since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
--short-inode since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
--show since Debian 13 (Trixie);
--sticky-timeouts since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
--uname-2.6 since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
--verbose since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
--version since Debian 8 (Jessie);
--whole-seconds since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze);
-V since Debian 8 (Jessie);
-Z since Debian 8 (Jessie);
-p since Arch Linux 2026-11-01.