whether my system is 32 bit o 64 bit?

[Colin Law]

On 31 October 2011 13:46, Donkey Hottie <donkey at fredriksson.dy.fi> wrote:
> 31.10.2011 15:23, Linux Tyro kirjoitti:
>> On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 6:41 PM, Donkey Hottie <donkey at fredriksson.dy.fi
>> <mailto:donkey at fredriksson.dy.fi>> wrote:
>>
>>     > myfamily at myfamily-desktop:~$ arch
>>     > i686
>>     >
>>     > i686 is it 64 bit?
>>     >
>>
>>     negative!
>>
>>
>> You mena its 32 bit?
>>
>
> positive!
>
> Yes. it is 32 bit.

I believe part of the confusion here is due to the fact that man arch
says that it prints the machine hardware name I believe that this is
actually telling you about the installed OS *not* about the machine
hardware itself.  Can someone confirm this?

Colin