How do I determine the current operating system with Node.js

Question

I'm writing a couple of node shell scripts for use when developing on a platform. We have both Mac and Windows developers. Is there a variable I can check for in Node to run a .sh file in one instance and .bat in another?

Like combining module _Child Processes_ with module _OS_? – Wolfgang Kuehn Dec 30 '11 at 20:49 — Wolfgang Kuehn, Dec 30 '11 at 20:49

score 721 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 15 '22 at 09:08

721

The variable to use would be process.platform

On Mac the variable is set to darwin. On Windows, it is set to win32 (even on 64 bit).

Current possible values are:

aix
darwin
freebsd
linux
openbsd
sunos
win32
android (Experimental, according to the link)

I just set this at the top of my jakeFile:

var isWin = process.platform === "win32";

edited Jan 15 '22 at 09:08

Community

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answered Dec 30 '11 at 20:54

Mauvis Ledford

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You should use the OS module better, it's even in the documentation. os.platform specifically – alessioalex Dec 30 '11 at 20:58
120

windows returns `'win32'`, even on 64 bit operation systems. i.e. `process.platform === 'win32'` is sufficient – Raynos Dec 30 '11 at 21:44
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I checked os.platform and process.platform and they are the exact same on window and mac. I will use process.platform since it doesn't require including a lib. – Mauvis Ledford Jan 06 '12 at 08:47
can I run this code without creating a js file? Ie **node "some inline script"** – SuperUberDuper Dec 08 '15 at 11:25
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@SuperUberDuper `node -p 'process.platform'` – Jed Fox Jul 07 '16 at 18:02
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While the string compare of `process.platform === 'win32'` seems more concise than the regex, and obviously quicker. The regex Mauvis has posted seems to be a better _quality_ check. If Node/Windows every decided to return win64, winARM, etc., or anything else a ton of code would break with the string compare. All we are looking for is if it's Windows or not. Not the arch. I vote for the regex at this time after having used the string compare for a while, the regex 'feels' safer. – Andrew T Finnell Oct 04 '16 at 13:56
18

@AndrewTFinnell: Win32 does not actually mean "Windows on x86"—Windows on x64, ARM, or even Itanium are all Win32, because Win32 is the name of the API regardless of what processor it is running on. So the architecture has nothing to do with the name Win32. I would argue that the regex check is more dangerous, because some other, *incompatible* platform might conceivably start with the characters "win" at some point in the future. – Dietrich Epp Feb 25 '17 at 00:16
2

@JF Should actually be `node -p process.platform` without the quotes. With the quotes, it just returns the string "process.platform" – shiser Mar 09 '17 at 02:18
@shiser I just tried it in the macOS terminal, and it works just fine. What OS are you on? – Jed Fox Mar 09 '17 at 11:07
Just tried again to ensure I'm not imagining things. Running Node 6.9.4 on Windows (10, 64-bit) – shiser Mar 11 '17 at 23:45
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"If Node/Windows every decided to return win64, winARM, etc., or anything else a ton of code would break with the string compare" <-- I don’t think it’s a good justification for a regex. Node knows perfectly well that this would break every other library so they’d never do a breaking change like this. – Dan Abramov Jan 16 '18 at 15:47
1

To get the architecture, you can run `process.arch`. It will return, for example on Windows, either `x86` or `x64`. – a_rahmanshah Oct 13 '18 at 08:17

score 94 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 06 '20 at 11:37

94

With Node.js v6 (and above) there is a dedicated os module, which provides a number of operating system-related utility methods.

On my Windows 10 machine it reports the following:

var os = require('os');

console.log(os.type()); // "Windows_NT"
console.log(os.release()); // "10.0.14393"
console.log(os.platform()); // "win32"

You can read it's full documentation here: https://nodejs.org/api/os.html#os_os_type

edited Apr 06 '20 at 11:37

Srishti Sinha

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answered Nov 30 '16 at 13:47

Benny Code

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This works, but only for server side code execution, it does not give the platform of the client code. Only the platform of the server executing the code. I tried it with BrowserStack and it only gives the operating system of the Docker Container instance that is the runner, not the browser instance running on BrowserStack, which could be iOS or Android, or Windows or OSX. – Seth Eden Aug 27 '18 at 19:30

score 55 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 24 '16 at 09:33

55

You are looking for the OS native module for Node.js:

v4: https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v4.x/docs/api/os.html#os_os_platform

or v5 : https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v5.x/docs/api/os.html#os_os_platform

os.platform()

Returns the operating system platform. Possible values are 'darwin', 'freebsd', 'linux', 'sunos' or 'win32'. Returns the value of process.platform.

edited Mar 24 '16 at 09:33

cube45

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answered Dec 30 '11 at 20:49

alessioalex

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var isWin = (os.platform() === 'win32'); – urish Oct 18 '13 at 09:51
6

process.platform works too, without a require: https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v4.x/docs/api/process.html#process_process_platform – David Braun Jan 19 '16 at 03:03
Again, add openbsd to the list – Clay Risser Jul 10 '18 at 13:41
os.platform() gives output "browser" instead of giving os name. – Mohd Shahid Oct 28 '18 at 07:29

score 30 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 19 '19 at 16:32

30

Process

var opsys = process.platform;
if (opsys == "darwin") {
    opsys = "MacOS";
} else if (opsys == "win32" || opsys == "win64") {
    opsys = "Windows";
} else if (opsys == "linux") {
    opsys = "Linux";
}
console.log(opsys) // I don't know what linux is.

OS

const os = require("os"); // Comes with node.js
console.log(os.type());

edited Jun 19 '19 at 16:32

minimalpop

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answered Dec 29 '18 at 10:21

Jaidee

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**There is no platform called "win64"**. You can find the available values here: https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#process_process_platform Also, you forgot to close your last *else if*. – frzsombor Apr 26 '19 at 19:10
4

`os.type()` seems to return 'Darwin' with an uppercase. For safety reasons it might be better to call `os.type().toLowerCase()`before comparing values. – cwouter Jul 01 '19 at 12:44

Adeojo Emmanuel IMM · Answer 5 · 2018-05-08T13:59:41.773

8

This Works fine for me

var osvar = process.platform;

if (osvar == 'darwin') {
    console.log("you are on a mac os");
}else if(osvar == 'win32'){
    console.log("you are on a windows os")
}else{
    console.log("unknown os")
}

edited May 08 '18 at 13:59

answered May 04 '18 at 18:13

Adeojo Emmanuel IMM

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Vlad · Answer 6 · 2018-04-25T15:42:06.343

5

Works fine for me

if (/^win/i.test(process.platform)) {
    // TODO: Windows
} else {
    // TODO: Linux, Mac or something else
}

The i modifier is used to perform case-insensitive matching.

edited Apr 25 '18 at 15:42

answered Mar 06 '18 at 05:05

Vlad

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 24 '14 at 08:32

when you are using 32bits node on 64bits windows(like node-webkit or atom-shell developers), process.platform will echo win32

use

    function isOSWin64() {
      return process.arch === 'x64' || process.env.hasOwnProperty('PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432');
    }

(check here for details)

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

2

I was facing the same issue running my node js code on Windows VM on mac machine. The following code did the trick.

Replace

process.platform == 'win32'

with

const os = require('os');

os.platform() == 'win32';

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered May 12 '20 at 05:59

Shagun Pruthi

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score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Apr 28 '15 at 10:42

1

var isWin64 = process.env.hasOwnProperty('ProgramFiles(x86)');

edited Apr 28 '15 at 10:42

Khalid

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answered Dec 23 '14 at 05:17

Ziyu Zhou

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Alexander Koleda · Answer 10 · 2017-06-09T10:50:07.990

1

const path = require('path');

if (path.sep === "\\") {
console.log("Windows");
} else {
console.log("Not Windows");
}

edited Jun 09 '17 at 10:50

answered Jun 07 '17 at 09:42

Alexander Koleda

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While this code may answer the question, providing additional context regarding how and/or why it solves the problem would improve the answer's long-term value. – Badacadabra Jun 07 '17 at 14:01
Even though that would work in most cases, I would prefer using the `os` module, which is more expressive when reading the code. – Stephan Feb 03 '18 at 22:10

How do I determine the current operating system with Node.js

10 Answers10

os.platform()

Process

OS

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