How to check the OS within R

Question

Possible Duplicates:
detecting operating system in R (e.g. for adaptive .Rprofile files)
How can I determine in R what platform I'm running on?

Is there a primitive function in R that will return information about the system on which R is running? I am concerned primarily with the OS, but any other data could be helpful.

Looks like duplicate [detecting operating system in R (e.g. for adaptive .Rprofile files)](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4463087/detecting-operating-system-in-r-e-g-for-adaptive-rprofile-files) — Marek, Jan 20 '11 at 13:40
And this one: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3919621/how-can-i-determine-in-r-what-platform-im-running-on/3922058#3922058 — Gavin Simpson, Jan 20 '11 at 13:50

Joris Meys · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-21T16:50:11.053

63

use Sys.info() for all information about the system, Sys.info()['sysname'] gives you the OS.

R.Version() gives you the version of R, including which architecture you're running (32bit - i386 - versus 64bit - x64 - ).

R.home() and system.file(package="xxx") give you information of the location of the root resp. the package files.

edited Mar 21 '12 at 16:50

answered Jan 20 '11 at 13:36

Joris Meys

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Would you change `Sys.info()$sysname` to `Sys.info()['sysname']`? The former will throw the error "Error in Sys.info()$sysname : $ operator is invalid for atomic vectors". – Jonathan Mar 21 '12 at 13:43
@Jonathan true, I should've checked – Joris Meys Mar 21 '12 at 16:51
3

That change is quite possibly more recent than the answer... I think R tightened that post 2.13 or so. – Dirk Eddelbuettel Mar 21 '12 at 16:52

score 49 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 20 '11 at 13:40

49

Here are three ways:

> .Platform$OS.type
[1] "unix"
> version$os ## or R.version$os
[1] "linux-gnu"
> Sys.info()["sysname"]
sysname 
"Linux"

Take a look at ?Sys.info for some details and provisos.

answered Jan 20 '11 at 13:40

Gavin Simpson

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How to check the OS within R

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