How do I check the operating system in Python?

Question

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?

possible duplicate of [How can I tell What OS I am running on from Python?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1854/how-can-i-tell-what-os-i-am-running-on-from-python) — BoltClock, Nov 22 '11 at 09:52
Possible duplicate of [Python: What OS am I running on?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1854/python-what-os-am-i-running-on) — TylerH, Feb 24 '19 at 16:43

score 516 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 03 '20 at 20:40

516

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?”

edited Jan 03 '20 at 20:40

Laurent LAPORTE

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answered Nov 21 '11 at 23:45

the wolf

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11

Note that in cygwin, it returns `"cygwin"` not `"win32"` as someone might expect. – Michał Bentkowski Nov 22 '11 at 11:03
37

Thanks. What's the difference between linux and linux2 ? – Tharindu Rusira Sep 05 '13 at 02:03
1

what would the output for BSD be ? – galois Mar 28 '15 at 09:00
15

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. – Mark Amery Jan 03 '20 at 18:28
1

why is it win32 not win64? – ohailolcat Jan 21 '21 at 22:08
1

@ohailolcat , for backward compatibility. It will probably never change. See the original patch that defined it this way for more info: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/patches/2000-May/000648.html – cowlinator Feb 11 '21 at 21:51
1

if sys.platform.startswith('freebsd') – Tatarize Feb 27 '21 at 00:19
note, sys.name you mentioned doesn't exist in python 3.10.9 – kristianp Jun 13 '23 at 04:30

score 54 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 03 '20 at 18:37

54

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.

edited Jan 03 '20 at 18:37

Mark Amery

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answered Oct 08 '17 at 08:38

Laurent LAPORTE

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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.https://devdocs.io/python~3.7/library/platform#platform.system – Brandon Benefield Sep 05 '18 at 04:18
4

@BrandonBenefield, the enumeration is an example of possible values. On Apple devices, it returns “Darwin”. – Laurent LAPORTE Sep 05 '18 at 04:30

score 16 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 04 '21 at 22:40

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.

edited Feb 04 '21 at 22:40

Rob Watts

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answered Nov 21 '11 at 23:43

Nick Bastin

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os.uname() returns an error on windows: >>> os.uname() Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in AttributeError: module 'os' has no attribute 'uname'. Did you mean: 'name'? – kristianp Jun 13 '23 at 04:26

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 22 '11 at 00:09

7

More detailed information are available in the platform module.

answered Nov 22 '11 at 00:09

Sven Marnach

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Does the `platform` module have any advantage over `sys.platform`? When would I want to use which approach? – matth Nov 07 '16 at 14:42
@matth: You get more detailed, structured information from the `platform` module. Just click the link for documentation. – Sven Marnach Nov 07 '16 at 20:36

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 21 '11 at 23:42

5

You can use sys.platform.

answered Nov 21 '11 at 23:42

Ondrej Slinták

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How do I check the operating system in Python?

5 Answers5

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