PyMOTW-3platform — System Version Information¶
| Purpose: | Probe the underlying platform’s hardware, operating system, and interpreter version information. |
|---|
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 when the time comes 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 in this section was generated on three systems: a Mac mini running macOS 10.14, a Dell PC running Ubuntu Linux 14.04, and a VirtualBox VM running Windows 10. Python was installed on the OS X and Windows systems using the pre-compiled installers from python.org. The Linux system is running a version in a system package.
Special thanks to Patrick Kettner (@patrickkettner) for helping to collect the example output on Windows.
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 patch level 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:
$ python3 platform_python.py
Version : 3.7.1
Version tuple: ('3', '7', '1')
Compiler : Clang 6.0 (clang-600.0.57)
Build : ('v3.7.1:260ec2c36a', 'Oct 20 2018 03:13:28')
Linux:
$ python3 platform_python.py
Version : 3.5.2
Version tuple: ('3', '5', '2')
Compiler : GCC 4.8.4
Build : ('default', 'Jul 17 2016 00:00:00')
Windows:
C:\>Desktop\platform_python.py
Version : 3.5.1
Version tuple: ('3', '5', '1')
Compiler : MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)
Build : ('v3.5.1:37a07cee5969', 'Dec 6 2015 01:54:25')
Platform¶
The platform() function returns a 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, a minimal value with some parts dropped is returned
instead of the full string.
import platform
print('Normal :', platform.platform())
print('Aliased:', platform.platform(aliased=True))
print('Terse :', platform.platform(terse=True))
OS X:
$ python3 platform_platform.py
Normal : Darwin-18.0.0-x86_64-i386-64bit
Aliased: Darwin-18.0.0-x86_64-i386-64bit
Terse : Darwin-18.0.0
Linux:
$ python3 platform_platform.py
Normal : Linux-3.13.0-55-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-14.04-trusty
Aliased: Linux-3.13.0-55-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-14.04-trusty
Terse : Linux-3.13.0-55-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.9
Windows:
C:\>platform_platform.py
Normal : Windows-10-10.0.10240-SP0
Aliased: Windows-10-10.0.10240-SP0
Terse : Windows-10
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, listed in the table below.
| Function | Return Value |
|---|---|
system() |
operating system name |
node() |
host name of the server, not fully qualified |
release() |
operating system release number |
version() |
more detailed system version |
machine() |
a hardware-type identifier, such as 'i386' |
processor() |
a real identifier for the processor (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:
$ python3 platform_os_info.py
uname: uname_result(system='Darwin', node='hubert.local',
release='18.0.0', version='Darwin Kernel Version 18.0.0: Wed Aug
22 20:13:40 PDT 2018; root:xnu-4903.201.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64',
machine='x86_64', processor='i386')
system : Darwin
node : hubert.local
release : 18.0.0
version : Darwin Kernel Version 18.0.0: Wed Aug 22 20:13:40 PDT
2018; root:xnu-4903.201.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64
machine : x86_64
processor: i386
Linux:
$ python3 platform_os_info.py
uname: uname_result(system='Linux', node='apu',
release='3.13.0-55-generic', version='#94-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 18
00:27:10 UTC 2015', machine='x86_64', processor='x86_64')
system : Linux
node : apu
release : 3.13.0-55-generic
version : #94-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 18 00:27:10 UTC 2015
machine : x86_64
processor: x86_64
Windows:
C:\>Desktop\platform_os_info.py
uname: uname_result(system='Windows', node='IE11WIN10',
release='10', version='10.0.10240', machine='AMD64',
processor='Intel64 Family 6 Model 70 Stepping 1, GenuineIntel')
system : Windows
node : IE11WIN10
release : 10
version : 10.0.10240
machine : AMD64
processor: Intel64 Family 6 Model 70 Stepping 1, 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:
$ python3 platform_architecture.py
interpreter: ('64bit', '')
/bin/ls : ('64bit', '')
Linux:
$ python3 platform_architecture.py
interpreter: ('64bit', 'ELF')
/bin/ls : ('64bit', 'ELF')
Windows:
C:\>Desktop\platform_architecture.py
interpreter: ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
/bin/ls : ('64bit', '')
