How do I programmatically determine operating syst

Question

I would like to determine the operating system of the host that my Java program is running programmatically (for example: I would like to be able to load different properties based on whether I am on a Windows or Unix platform). What is the safest way to do this with 100% reliability?

Answer 1

Let's say you have a Util class for such utility functions. Then create public enums for each operating system type.

public class Util {     
        public enum OS {
            WINDOWS, LINUX, MAC, SOLARIS
        };// Operating systems.

    private static OS os = null;

    public static OS getOS() {
        if (os == null) {
            String operSys = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase();
            if (operSys.contains("win")) {
                os = OS.WINDOWS;
            } else if (operSys.contains("nix") || operSys.contains("nux")
                    || operSys.contains("aix")) {
                os = OS.LINUX;
            } else if (operSys.contains("mac")) {
                os = OS.MAC;
            } else if (operSys.contains("sunos")) {
                os = OS.SOLARIS;
            }
        }
        return os;
    }
}

Then you can easly invoke class from any class as follows,(P.S. Since the we declared os variable as static, it will consume time only once to identify the system type, then it can be used until your application halts. )

            switch (Util.getOS()) {
            case WINDOWS:
                //do windows stuff
                break;
            case LINUX:

and so on...

Answer 2

This code for displaying all information about the system os type,name , java information and so on.

public static void main(String[] args) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    Properties pro = System.getProperties();
    for(Object obj : pro.keySet()){
        System.out.println(" System  "+(String)obj+"     :  "+System.getProperty((String)obj));
    }
}

Answer 3

I think following can give broader coverage in fewer lines

import org.apache.commons.exec.OS;

if (OS.isFamilyWindows()){
                //load some property
            }
else if (OS.isFamilyUnix()){
                //load some other property
            }

More details here: https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-exec/apidocs/org/apache/commons/exec/OS.html

Answer 4

As indicated in other answers, System.getProperty provides the raw data. However, the Apache Commons Lang component provides a wrapper for java.lang.System with handy properties like SystemUtils.IS_OS_WINDOWS, much like the aforementioned Swingx OS util.

Answer 5

some of the links in the answers above seem to be broken. I have added pointers to current source code in the code below and offer an approach for handling the check with an enum as an answer so that a switch statement can be used when evaluating the result:

OsCheck.OSType ostype=OsCheck.getOperatingSystemType();
switch (ostype) {
    case Windows: break;
    case MacOS: break;
    case Linux: break;
    case Other: break;
}

The helper class is:

/**
 * helper class to check the operating system this Java VM runs in
 *
 * please keep the notes below as a pseudo-license
 *
 * http://stackoverflow.com/questions/228477/how-do-i-programmatically-determine-operating-system-in-java
 * compare to http://svn.terracotta.org/svn/tc/dso/tags/2.6.4/code/base/common/src/com/tc/util/runtime/Os.java
 * http://www.docjar.com/html/api/org/apache/commons/lang/SystemUtils.java.html
 */
import java.util.Locale;
public static final class OsCheck {
  /**
   * types of Operating Systems
   */
  public enum OSType {
    Windows, MacOS, Linux, Other
  };

  // cached result of OS detection
  protected static OSType detectedOS;

  /**
   * detect the operating system from the os.name System property and cache
   * the result
   * 
   * @returns - the operating system detected
   */
  public static OSType getOperatingSystemType() {
    if (detectedOS == null) {
      String OS = System.getProperty("os.name", "generic").toLowerCase(Locale.ENGLISH);
      if ((OS.indexOf("mac") >= 0) || (OS.indexOf("darwin") >= 0)) {
        detectedOS = OSType.MacOS;
      } else if (OS.indexOf("win") >= 0) {
        detectedOS = OSType.Windows;
      } else if (OS.indexOf("nux") >= 0) {
        detectedOS = OSType.Linux;
      } else {
        detectedOS = OSType.Other;
      }
    }
    return detectedOS;
  }
}

Answer 6

    private static String OS = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase();

    public static void detectOS() {
        if (isWindows()) {

        } else if (isMac()) {

        } else if (isUnix()) {

        } else {

        }
    }

    private static boolean isWindows() {
        return (OS.indexOf("win") >= 0);
    }

    private static boolean isMac() {
        return (OS.indexOf("mac") >= 0);
    }

    private static boolean isUnix() {
        return (OS.indexOf("nux") >= 0);
    }