Where is "uname" pulling information from?

Where is uname -i pulling the information from?

Do the details exist in /etc/?

Do the details exist in /proc/?

If so, which file is it referencing to output those details?

uname uses the system call uname(2) to get the kernel related information it shows.

The synopsis is:

#include <sys/utsname.h>
int uname(struct utsname *buf);

where uname(2) returns information in the structure pointed to by buf. Also you can read the header file utsname.h from /usr/include/"$(arch)"-linux-gnu/sys/utsname.h to dig deeper.

Have a look at man 2 uname to get more idea about this.

The program strace allows us to view the system calls an application may make. With uname -a it's apparent that the only open calls go to system libraries, so technically there is no file on the filesystem that the uname opens for reading. Rather it makes system calls using the C libraries.

As heemayl properly pointed out there exists sys call to retrieving the information stored in the uname structure. It's man page, suggests the following:

This is a system call, and the operating system presumably knows its name, release and version . . . . . . Part of the utsname information is also accessible via /proc/sys/ker‐ nel/{ostype, hostname, osrelease, version, domainname}.

Part of the utsname information is also accessible via /proc/sys/ker‐ nel/{ostype, hostname, osrelease, version, domainname}.

/proc filesystem however is virtual, meaning it exists only while the OS is running. Thus to some extend it is set within kernel or system libraries.

Finally, reading through the source code of uname.c which can be obtained with apt-get source coreutils , we can see that it indeed uses the utsname.h library(printed with line numbers):

 19 
 20 #include <config.h>
 21 #include <stdio.h>
 22 #include <sys/types.h>
 23 #include <sys/utsname.h>
 24 #include <getopt.h>
 25 

strace output:

skolodya@ubuntu:$ strace uname -a
execve("/bin/uname", ["uname", "-a"], [/* 58 vars */]) = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0x1478000
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7efee6935000
access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=137226, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 137226, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7efee6913000
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0\320\37\2\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=1840928, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 3949248, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7efee6350000
mprotect(0x7efee650b000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap(0x7efee670a000, 24576, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x1ba000) = 0x7efee670a000
mmap(0x7efee6710000, 17088, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7efee6710000
close(3)                                = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7efee6912000
mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7efee6910000
arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7efee6910740) = 0
mprotect(0x7efee670a000, 16384, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x606000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0x7efee6937000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
munmap(0x7efee6913000, 137226)          = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0x1478000
brk(0x1499000)                          = 0x1499000
open("/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=7216688, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 7216688, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7efee5c6e000
close(3)                                = 0
uname({sys="Linux", node="eagle", ...}) = 0
fstat(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 0), ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7efee6934000
uname({sys="Linux", node="eagle", ...}) = 0
uname({sys="Linux", node="eagle", ...}) = 0
write(1, "Linux eagle 4.1.0-040100rc2-gene"..., 113Linux eagle 4.1.0-040100rc2-generic #201505032335 SMP Mon May 4 03:36:35 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
) = 113
close(1)                                = 0
munmap(0x7efee6934000, 4096)            = 0
close(2)                                = 0
exit_group(0)                           = ?
+++ exited with 0 +++