CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.xexe32bit-64bit
K.Mulier
K.Mulier

Reputation: 9640

Checking if an executable is 32-bit or 64-bit with a python3 script on Windows/Linux

I'm writing software in Python3 (more specifically: Python 3.8.1). At some point, the software needs to check if some arbitrary executable is 64-bit or 32-bit. After some research, I found the following post:

Checking if an exe is 32 bit or 64 bit

In this post, the following solution is offered:

subprocess.call(['dumpbin', '/HEADERS', 'test2.exe', '|', 'find', '"machine"'])

Unfortunately, this doesn't work in Python 3.8.1. That post is almost 8 years old and dates back to the Python 2.x days.

How can I test for 64-bitness from within Python 3.x? I need a solution for both Linux and Windows 10.

EDITS :
Windows-related note:
Apparently the DumpBin solution (see Checking if an exe is 32 bit or 64 bit post) requires Visual Studio to be installed. That's a no-no for me. My Python3 software should run on any Windows 10 computer.

Linux-related note:
On Linux, I don't neet to test PE format executables. Just Linux executables are fine.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1664

Answers (1)

L3viathan
L3viathan

Reputation: 27333

Detecting the 64-bitness of ELF binaries (i.e. Linux) is easy, because it's always at the same place in the header:

def is_64bit_elf(filename):
    with open(filename, "rb") as f:
        return f.read(5)[-1] == 2

I don't have a Windows system, so I can't test this, but this might work on Windows:

def is_64bit_pe(filename):
    import win32file
    return win32file.GetBinaryType(filename) == 6

Upvotes: 4

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