PyMOTW: platform

Probe the underlying platform's architecture and version information with the platform module.

Module: platform
Purpose: Access system hardware, OS, and interpreter version information.
Python Version: 2.3+

Description:

Although Python is often used as a cross-platform language, it is occasionally necessary to know what sort of system you're running on. Build tools obviously need that information, but you might also know that some libraries or external commands have different interfaces on different operating systems. For example, if you are writing a tool to manage the network configuration of an operating system, you can have a portable representation of network interfaces, aliases, IP addresses, etc. But once you get down to actually editing the configuration files, you need to know more about your host and how it is configured. The platform module gives you some tools for learning about the interpreter, operating system, and hardware platform where your program is running.

Examples:

The example output below was generated on a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.2 and a VMware VM running CentOS 4.6. I don't have ready access to Windows, but these functions all work there, too. (If someone wants to run the scripts on Windows and post the output in the comments, I would appreciate it!)

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      : 2.5.1
Version tuple: ['2', '5', '1']
Compiler     : GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5367)
Build        : ('r251:54869', 'Apr 18 2007 22:08:04')

Linux:

$ python platform_python.py 
Version      : 2.4.4
Version tuple: ['2', '4', '4']
Compiler     : GCC 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-9)
Build        : (1, 'Mar 12 2008 15:09:04')

(It looks like I need to upgrade that system...)

Platform:

A general purpose platform identifier is available via the platform() function. platform() 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-9.2.2-i386-32bit
Aliased: Darwin-9.2.2-i386-32bit
Terse  : Darwin-9.2.2

Linux:

$ python platform_platform.py 
Normal : Linux-2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp-i686-with-redhat-4.6-Final
Aliased: Linux-2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp-i686-with-redhat-4.6-Final
Terse  : Linux-2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp-i686-with-glibc2.3

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', 'farnsworth.local', '9.2.2', 'Darwin Kernel Version 9.2.2: Tue Mar  4 21:17:34 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.4.31~1/RELEASE_I386', 'i386', 'i386')

system   : Darwin
node     : farnsworth.local
release  : 9.2.2
version  : Darwin Kernel Version 9.2.2: Tue Mar  4 21:17:34 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.4.31~1/RELEASE_I386
machine  : i386
processor: i386

Linux:

$ python platform_os_info.py 
uname: ('Linux', 'zoidberg', '2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp', '#1 SMP Sun Feb 3 07:08:57 EST 2008', 'i686', 'i686')

system   : Linux
node     : zoidberg
release  : 2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp
version  : #1 SMP Sun Feb 3 07:08:57 EST 2008
machine  : i686
processor: i686

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: ('32bit', '')
/bin/ls    : ('32bit', '')

Linux:

$ python platform_architecture.py 
interpreter: ('32bit', 'ELF')
/bin/ls    : ('32bit', 'ELF')

References:

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