platform – Access system version information¶
| Purpose: | Probe the underlying platform’s hardware, operating system, and interpreter version information. |
|---|---|
| Available In: | 2.3 and later |
Although Python is often used as a cross-platform language, it is occasionally necessary to know what sort of system a program is running on. Build tools need that information, but an application might also know that some of the libraries or external commands it uses have different interfaces on different operating systems. For example, a tool to manage the network configuration of an operating system can define a portable representation of network interfaces, aliases, IP addresses, etc. But once it actually needs to edit the configuration files, it must know more about the host so it can use the correct operating system configuration commands and files. The platform module includes the tools for learning about the interpreter, operating system, and hardware platform where a program is running.
Note
The example output below was generated on a MacBook Pro3,1 running OS X 10.6.4, a VMware Fusion VM running CentOS 5.5, and a Dell PC running Microsoft Windows 2008. Python was installed on the OS X and Windows systems using the pre-compiled installer from python.org. The Linux system is running an interpreter built from source locally.
Interpreter¶
There are four functions for getting information about the current Python interpreter. python_version() and python_version_tuple() return different forms of the interpreter version with major, minor, and patchlevel components. python_compiler() reports on the compiler used to build the interpreter. And python_build() gives a version string for the build of the interpreter.
import platform
print 'Version :', platform.python_version()
print 'Version tuple:', platform.python_version_tuple()
print 'Compiler :', platform.python_compiler()
print 'Build :', platform.python_build()
OS X:
$ python platform_python.py
Version : 2.7.2
Version tuple: ('2', '7', '2')
Compiler : GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)
Build : ('v2.7.2:8527427914a2', 'Jun 11 2011 15:22:34')
Linux:
$ python platform_python.py
Version : 2.7.0
Version tuple: ('2', '7', '0')
Compiler : GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-46)
Build : ('r27', 'Aug 20 2010 11:37:51')
Windows:
C:> python.exe platform_python.py
Version : 2.7.0
Version tuple: ['2', '7', '0']
Compiler : MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)
Build : ('r27:82525', 'Jul 4 2010 07:43:08')
Platform¶
platform() returns string containing a general purpose platform identifier. The function accepts two optional boolean arguments. If aliased is True, the names in the return value are converted from a formal name to their more common form. When terse is true, returns a minimal value with some parts dropped.
import platform
print 'Normal :', platform.platform()
print 'Aliased:', platform.platform(aliased=True)
print 'Terse :', platform.platform(terse=True)
OS X:
$ python platform_platform.py
Normal : Darwin-11.4.2-x86_64-i386-64bit
Aliased: Darwin-11.4.2-x86_64-i386-64bit
Terse : Darwin-11.4.2
Linux:
$ python platform_platform.py
Normal : Linux-2.6.18-194.3.1.el5-i686-with-redhat-5.5-Final
Aliased: Linux-2.6.18-194.3.1.el5-i686-with-redhat-5.5-Final
Terse : Linux-2.6.18-194.3.1.el5-i686-with-glibc2.3
Windows:
C:> python.exe platform_platform.py
Normal : Windows-2008ServerR2-6.1.7600
Aliased: Windows-2008ServerR2-6.1.7600
Terse : Windows-2008ServerR2
Operating System and Hardware Info¶
More detailed information about the operating system and hardware the interpreter is running under can be retrieved as well. uname() returns a tuple containing the system, node, release, version, machine, and processor values. Individual values can be accessed through functions of the same names:
- system()
- returns the operating system name
- node()
- returns the hostname of the server, not fully qualified
- release()
- returns the operating system release number
- version()
- returns the more detailed system version
- machine()
- gives a hardware-type identifier such as 'i386'
- processor()
- returns a real identifier for the processor, or the same value as machine() in many cases
import platform
print 'uname:', platform.uname()
print
print 'system :', platform.system()
print 'node :', platform.node()
print 'release :', platform.release()
print 'version :', platform.version()
print 'machine :', platform.machine()
print 'processor:', platform.processor()
OS X:
$ python platform_os_info.py
uname: ('Darwin', 'hubert.local', '11.4.2', 'Darwin Kernel Version 11.4.2: Thu Aug 23 16:25:48 PDT 2012; root:xnu-1699.32.7~1/RELEASE_X86_64', 'x86_64', 'i386')
system : Darwin
node : hubert.local
release : 11.4.2
version : Darwin Kernel Version 11.4.2: Thu Aug 23 16:25:48 PDT 2012; root:xnu-1699.32.7~1/RELEASE_X86_64
machine : x86_64
processor: i386
Linux:
$ python platform_os_info.py
uname: ('Linux', 'hermes.hellfly.net', '2.6.18-194.3.1.el5',
'#1 SMP Thu May 13 13:09:10 EDT 2010', 'i686', 'i686')
system : Linux
node : hermes.hellfly.net
release : 2.6.18-194.3.1.el5
version : #1 SMP Thu May 13 13:09:10 EDT 2010
machine : i686
processor: i686
Windows:
C:> python.exe platform_os_info.py
uname: ('Windows', 'dhellmann', '2008ServerR2', '6.1.7600', 'AMD64',
'Intel64 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11, GenuineIntel')
system : Windows
node : dhellmann
release : 2008ServerR2
version : 6.1.7600
machine : AMD64
processor: Intel64 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11, GenuineIntel
Executable Architecture¶
Individual program architecture information can be probed using the architecture() function. The first argument is the path to an executable program (defaulting to sys.executable, the Python interpreter). The return value is a tuple containing the bit architecture and the linkage format used.
import platform
print 'interpreter:', platform.architecture()
print '/bin/ls :', platform.architecture('/bin/ls')
OS X:
$ python platform_architecture.py
interpreter: ('64bit', '')
/bin/ls : ('64bit', '')
Linux:
$ python platform_architecture.py
interpreter: ('32bit', 'ELF')
/bin/ls : ('32bit', 'ELF')
Windows:
C:> python.exe platform_architecture.py
interpreter : ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
iexplore.exe : ('64bit', '')
See also
- platform
- Standard library documentation for this module.
