Is there any C++ api available to know the OS description?

Question

I am working tools that will be used on the multiple OS and platform. This tools will provide the details of the OS on which it is running, like 32 bit or 64 bit OS, exact version of Linux,Solaris,or other OS.

One way I am thinking of using the "uname -a" command to extract the OS information on the Linus/Unix based OS. Please suggest me that if it is efficient to call the command from the program.

Please let me know if there is any api available or there is any workaround that I can implement.

TIA anil

Answer 1

I would think that uname -a would be a good way, but only for *nixes.

Do you need to check OS info in Windows?

Answer 2

Why don't you simply wrap the OS detection with #define and each time call the ideal function so as to return a meaningful string in every case?

Some examples of system function to get information about the current OS (such as the running version):

• In Windows the function is: GetVersionEx
• FreeBSD (and unixes I guess): uname

Answer 3

The C++ Standard Library provides no way of doing this, so you are at the mercy of operating system specific features. And even then, there is no general method, as utilities like "uname" are not supported on Windows and will give differently formatted results on different UNIX flavours.

Answer 4

You can give a try to sysinfo() call (from sys/systeminfo.h on unix)

Also regarding "uname -a" efficiency , it depends where are you going to use it. In normal circumstances ( if your application is not time/cpu critical ) performance of "uname -a" should be acceptable.

There is also a function "uname()" present in sys/systeminfo.h file, which may help you.

Answer 5

There is no standard way to do this . But you can apply fingerprinting techniques to find out the target OS.

These are generally used to guess remote machine OS. You can look at nmap also, it does various types of fingerprintings.