308

I want to check the operating system (on the computer where the script runs).

I know I can use os.system('uname -o') in Linux, but it gives me a message in the console, and I want to write to a variable.

It will be okay if the script can tell if it is Mac, Windows or Linux. How can I check it?

Improve this question
2

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
559

You can use sys.platform:

from sys import platform
if platform == "linux" or platform == "linux2":
    # linux
elif platform == "darwin":
    # OS X
elif platform == "win32":
    # Windows...

sys.platform has finer granularity than sys.name.

For the valid values, consult the documentation.

See also the answer to “What OS am I running on?”

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

8 Comments

Note that in cygwin, it returns "cygwin" not "win32" as someone might expect.
Thanks. What's the difference between linux and linux2 ?
Note that since Python 3.3, "linux2" is no longer a possible value of platform (see the linked docs for corroboration) and so if you only need to support Python 3.3 and later you can safely delete the ` or platform == "linux2"` clause from the first condition.
why is it win32 not win64?
@ohailolcat , for backward compatibility. It will probably never change. See the original patch that defined it this way for more info: mail.python.org/pipermail/patches/2000-May/000648.html
|
61

If you want to know on which platform you are on out of "Linux", "Windows", or "Darwin" (Mac), without more precision, you should use:

>>> import platform
>>> platform.system()
'Linux'  # or 'Windows'/'Darwin'

The platform.system function uses uname internally.

Improve this answer

4 Comments

I like this solution but I want to point out that from the docs it states that it will return Linux, Windows, Java or an empty string.devdocs.io/python~3.7/library/platform#platform.system
@BrandonBenefield, the enumeration is an example of possible values. On Apple devices, it returns “Darwin”.
"The platform.system function uses uname internally." that's for Linux, what about Windows?
@Shayan For Windows, it basically is a formatter to sys.platform
16

You can get a pretty coarse idea of the OS you're using by checking sys.platform.

Once you have that information you can use it to determine if calling something like os.uname() is appropriate to gather more specific information. You could also use something like Python System Information on unix-like OSes, or pywin32 for Windows.

There's also psutil if you want to do more in-depth inspection without wanting to care about the OS.

Improve this answer

1 Comment

os.uname() returns an error on windows: >>> os.uname() Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> AttributeError: module 'os' has no attribute 'uname'. Did you mean: 'name'?
7

More detailed information are available in the platform module.

Improve this answer

2 Comments

Does the platform module have any advantage over sys.platform? When would I want to use which approach?
@matth: You get more detailed, structured information from the platform module. Just click the link for documentation.
5

You can use sys.platform.

Improve this answer

Comments

-1

I stumbled across this for all Kivy developers kivy.utils:

from kivy.utils import platform
if platform == 'linux':
    do_linux_things()
Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.