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What values are given for the `os.name` family of functions on various platforms in Python?

Python has a handful of different ways to determine what OS the program is running on:

  • os.name
  • platform.system()
  • sys.platform

What are the values of these on various platforms?

Solution

  • Linux:

    >>> import os
>>> os.name
'posix'
>>> import platform
>>> platform.system()
'Linux'
>>> import sys
>>> sys.platform
'linux2'

    Mac OS:

    >>> import os
>>> os.name
'posix'
>>> import platform
>>> platform.system()
'Darwin'
>>> import sys
>>> sys.platform
'darwin'

    Windows:

    >>> import os
>>> os.name
'nt'
>>> import platform
>>> platform.system()
'Windows'
>>> import sys
>>> sys.platform
'win32'

    Cygwin:

    >>> import os
>>> os.name
'posix'
>>> import platform
>>> platform.system()
'CYGWIN_NT-10.0'
>>> import sys
>>> sys.platform
'cygwin'

    GhostBSD 24.04.1, CPython 3.9.18

    >>> import os
>>> os.name
'posix'
>>> import platform
>>> platform.system()
'FreeBSD'
>>> import sys
>>> sys.platform
'freebsd14'