R: determine if a script is running in Windows or Linux

Question

Is there a simple way to programmatically determine if an R script is being executed in Windows vs. Linux?

I am a little late to this party but consider this Google Code Search: http://www.google.com/codesearch?as_q=linux+windows&btnG=Search+Code&hl=en&as_lang=r -- i.e. specify 'as_lang=r' to get R-based solutions only when looking for strings 'linux' and 'windows'. And it's right there.... — Dirk Eddelbuettel, Jan 19 '10 at 20:10
fantastic! I didn't know about the GOOG code search. I struggled and struggled to search for this but kept getting unrelated results. — JD Long, Jan 20 '10 at 14:53

score 57 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 14 '11 at 07:29

57

if(.Platform$OS.type == "unix") {
} else {

}

edited Jun 14 '11 at 07:29

Marek

answered Jan 19 '10 at 19:39

Dan

i shouldn't have wasted that time with the first comment. Beaten to the punch again. – Dan Jan 19 '10 at 19:40
1

If it had been a useful comment, I would be sympathetic... But that one was really wasted time! :) – Pekka Jan 19 '10 at 19:42
Thanks! I could not remember this to save my life. – JD Long Jan 19 '10 at 19:43
1

actually this returns 'unix' on OSX also. I guess you'd need to also check `Sys.info()["sysname"]=='Darwin'` to distinguish. – conjugateprior Jan 28 '13 at 11:34

score 18 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 19 '10 at 19:42

18

Sys.info()["sysname"]

answered Jan 19 '10 at 19:42

rcs

score 13 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 14 '11 at 07:30

13

.Platform$OS.type

returns

[1] "unix"

or something else.

edited Jun 14 '11 at 07:30

Marek

answered Jan 19 '10 at 19:39

Spacedman

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 17 '18 at 15:16

I run the same code from any of three Linux or Windows machines. I use the following to set up working directories:

if(R.Version()$os == "linux-gnu"){
  dir.pre <- "/home"
} else {
  dir.pre <- "C:/Users"
}

On my debian linux server and my Ubuntu laptop:

> .Platform$OS.type
[1] "unix"
> R.Version()$os
[1] "linux-gnu"

On my Windows 10 laptop, in RStudio:

> .Platform$OS.type
[1] "windows"
> R.Version()$os
[1] "mingw32"

Feel free to edit and add to this list.

4 Answers4