CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javajavascript
Neel
Neel

Reputation: 429

Operating System Detection by Java or JavaScript

I need to detect OS name & version in Java. That I can do by 

String os_name = System.getProperty("os.name", "");
String os_version = System.getProperty("os.version", "");

but the problem is that this is not reliable. Sometimes it returns incorrect information, and I can't detect all operating systems, except the most popular Windows, MacOS, Linux etc, and this even provides wrong information in the case of 64 bit operating systems. I need to detect any OS with any kind of specification. I am unable to find the right solution for this.

Maybe I can do this with JavaScript? If it's impossible in Java then please tell me how to do it with JavaScript.

Any input or suggestions highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

**Nilanjan Chakraborty

Upvotes: 1

Views: 6139

Answers (3)

kennebec
kennebec

Reputation: 104760

All the browser's I'm familiar with report the OS from the navigator object (javascript)-

alert(navigator.platform)//returns string- eg'Win64'

Upvotes: 3

ahmet alp balkan
ahmet alp balkan

Reputation: 45196

There are not too much ways to detect this. Most probably it will work correctly 99% of the time.

However if you are looking for another method, you can consider checking some magic file paths. i.e:

  • if /etc or /proc folders exists, it is Linux
  • if C:\Windows\ exists, it is Windows.
  • etc.

However they won't be again reliable since /etc /proc may also exist in Mac.

If you want to find exact name of the OS, you can look at /etc/issue file in Unix-Linux-Mac and you can use "os.name" (which you claim that it is inaccurate) or WMI (windows management instrument) to retrieve OS name+version.

Upvotes: -2

greuze
greuze

Reputation: 4398

In Java there are some common bugs while guessing the operating system:

https://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug?bug_id=6819886

Maybe in newer versions of Java, they are solved.

In Javascript you can use navigator.appVersion:

// This script sets OSName variable as follows:
// "Windows"    for all versions of Windows
// "MacOS"      for all versions of Macintosh OS
// "Linux"      for all versions of Linux
// "UNIX"       for all other UNIX flavors 
// "Unknown OS" indicates failure to detect the OS

var OSName="Unknown OS";
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Win")!=-1) OSName="Windows";
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Mac")!=-1) OSName="MacOS";
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("X11")!=-1) OSName="UNIX";
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Linux")!=-1) OSName="Linux";

document.write('Your OS: '+OSName);

Upvotes: 9

Related Questions