"platform" ---  Access to underlying platform's identifying data
****************************************************************

New in version 2.3.

**Source code:** Lib/platform.py

======================================================================

Note: Specific platforms listed alphabetically, with Linux included
  in the Unix section.


Cross Platform
==============

platform.architecture(executable=sys.executable, bits='', linkage='')

   Queries the given executable (defaults to the Python interpreter
   binary) for various architecture information.

   Returns a tuple "(bits, linkage)" which contain information about
   the bit architecture and the linkage format used for the
   executable. Both values are returned as strings.

   Values that cannot be determined are returned as given by the
   parameter presets. If bits is given as "''", the
   "sizeof(pointer)()" (or "sizeof(long)()" on Python version < 1.5.2)
   is used as indicator for the supported pointer size.

   The function relies on the system's "file" command to do the actual
   work. This is available on most if not all Unix  platforms and some
   non-Unix platforms and then only if the executable points to the
   Python interpreter.  Reasonable defaults are used when the above
   needs are not met.

   Note: On Mac OS X (and perhaps other platforms), executable files
     may be universal files containing multiple architectures.To get
     at the "64-bitness" of the current interpreter, it is more
     reliable to query the "sys.maxsize" attribute:

        is_64bits = sys.maxsize > 2**32

platform.machine()

   Returns the machine type, e.g. "'i386'". An empty string is
   returned if the value cannot be determined.

platform.node()

   Returns the computer's network name (may not be fully qualified!).
   An empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.

platform.platform(aliased=0, terse=0)

   Returns a single string identifying the underlying platform with as
   much useful information as possible.

   The output is intended to be *human readable* rather than machine
   parseable. It may look different on different platforms and this is
   intended.

   If *aliased* is true, the function will use aliases for various
   platforms that report system names which differ from their common
   names, for example SunOS will be reported as Solaris.  The
   "system_alias()" function is used to implement this.

   Setting *terse* to true causes the function to return only the
   absolute minimum information needed to identify the platform.

platform.processor()

   Returns the (real) processor name, e.g. "'amdk6'".

   An empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined. Note
   that many platforms do not provide this information or simply
   return the same value as for "machine()".  NetBSD does this.

platform.python_build()

   Returns a tuple "(buildno, builddate)" stating the Python build
   number and date as strings.

platform.python_compiler()

   Returns a string identifying the compiler used for compiling
   Python.

platform.python_branch()

   Returns a string identifying the Python implementation SCM branch.

   New in version 2.6.

platform.python_implementation()

   Returns a string identifying the Python implementation. Possible
   return values are: 'CPython', 'IronPython', 'Jython', 'PyPy'.

   New in version 2.6.

platform.python_revision()

   Returns a string identifying the Python implementation SCM
   revision.

   New in version 2.6.

platform.python_version()

   Returns the Python version as string "'major.minor.patchlevel'".

   Note that unlike the Python "sys.version", the returned value will
   always include the patchlevel (it defaults to 0).

platform.python_version_tuple()

   Returns the Python version as tuple "(major, minor, patchlevel)" of
   strings.

   Note that unlike the Python "sys.version", the returned value will
   always include the patchlevel (it defaults to "'0'").

platform.release()

   Returns the system's release, e.g. "'2.2.0'" or "'NT'" An empty
   string is returned if the value cannot be determined.

platform.system()

   Returns the system/OS name, e.g. "'Linux'", "'Windows'", or
   "'Java'". An empty string is returned if the value cannot be
   determined.

platform.system_alias(system, release, version)

   Returns "(system, release, version)" aliased to common marketing
   names used for some systems.  It also does some reordering of the
   information in some cases where it would otherwise cause confusion.

platform.version()

   Returns the system's release version, e.g. "'#3 on degas'". An
   empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.

platform.uname()

   Fairly portable uname interface. Returns a tuple of strings
   "(system, node, release, version, machine, processor)" identifying
   the underlying platform.

   Note that unlike the "os.uname()" function this also returns
   possible processor information as additional tuple entry.

   Entries which cannot be determined are set to "''".


Java Platform
=============

platform.java_ver(release='', vendor='', vminfo=('', '', ''), osinfo=('', '', ''))

   Version interface for Jython.

   Returns a tuple "(release, vendor, vminfo, osinfo)" with *vminfo*
   being a tuple "(vm_name, vm_release, vm_vendor)" and *osinfo* being
   a tuple "(os_name, os_version, os_arch)". Values which cannot be
   determined are set to the defaults given as parameters (which all
   default to "''").


Windows Platform
================

platform.win32_ver(release='', version='', csd='', ptype='')

   Get additional version information from the Windows Registry and
   return a tuple "(release, version, csd, ptype)" referring to OS
   release, version number, CSD level (service pack) and OS type
   (multi/single processor).

   As a hint: *ptype* is "'Uniprocessor Free'" on single processor NT
   machines and "'Multiprocessor Free'" on multi processor machines.
   The *'Free'* refers to the OS version being free of debugging code.
   It could also state *'Checked'* which means the OS version uses
   debugging code, i.e. code that checks arguments, ranges, etc.

   Note: This function works best with Mark Hammond's "win32all"
     package installed, but also on Python 2.3 and later (support for
     this was added in Python 2.6). It obviously only runs on Win32
     compatible platforms.


Win95/98 specific
-----------------

platform.popen(cmd, mode='r', bufsize=None)

   Portable "popen()" interface.  Find a working popen implementation
   preferring "win32pipe.popen()".  On Windows NT, "win32pipe.popen()"
   should work; on Windows 9x it hangs due to bugs in the MS C
   library.


Mac OS Platform
===============

platform.mac_ver(release='', versioninfo=('', '', ''), machine='')

   Get Mac OS version information and return it as tuple "(release,
   versioninfo, machine)" with *versioninfo* being a tuple "(version,
   dev_stage, non_release_version)".

   Entries which cannot be determined are set to "''".  All tuple
   entries are strings.


Unix Platforms
==============

platform.dist(distname='', version='', id='', supported_dists=('SuSE', 'debian', 'redhat', 'mandrake', ...))

   This is an old version of the functionality now provided by
   "linux_distribution()". For new code, please use the
   "linux_distribution()".

   The only difference between the two is that "dist()" always returns
   the short name of the distribution taken from the "supported_dists"
   parameter.

   Deprecated since version 2.6.

platform.linux_distribution(distname='', version='', id='', supported_dists=('SuSE', 'debian', 'redhat', 'mandrake', ...), full_distribution_name=1)

   Tries to determine the name of the Linux OS distribution name.

   "supported_dists" may be given to define the set of Linux
   distributions to look for. It defaults to a list of currently
   supported Linux distributions identified by their release file
   name.

   If "full_distribution_name" is true (default), the full
   distribution read from the OS is returned. Otherwise the short name
   taken from "supported_dists" is used.

   Returns a tuple "(distname,version,id)" which defaults to the args
   given as parameters.  "id" is the item in parentheses after the
   version number.  It is usually the version codename.

   New in version 2.6.

platform.libc_ver(executable=sys.executable, lib='', version='', chunksize=2048)

   Tries to determine the libc version against which the file
   executable (defaults to the Python interpreter) is linked.  Returns
   a tuple of strings "(lib, version)" which default to the given
   parameters in case the lookup fails.

   Note that this function has intimate knowledge of how different
   libc versions add symbols to the executable is probably only usable
   for executables compiled using **gcc**.

   The file is read and scanned in chunks of *chunksize* bytes.