PHP script - detect whether running under linux or Windows?

Question

I have a PHP script that may be placed on a windows system or a linux system. I need to run different commands in either case.

How can I detect which environment I am in? (preferably something PHP rather than clever system hacks)

Update

To clarify, the script is running from the command line.

After performing benchmarks, it seems that any differences in performance between `\strncasecmp(\PHP_OS, 'WIN', 3) === 0`, `\strtoupper(\substr(\PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN'` and `\stripos(\PHP_OS, 'WIN')` are below 15%. Since all three solutions only take roughly 100 nanoseconds, this would be a micro-optimization, anyway. So choose whatever solution you like. Finally, you may argue that `\strncasecmp(\PHP_OS, 'WIN', 3) === 0` is the most readable. — caw, Aug 19 '19 at 23:26

score 265 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 24 '18 at 03:27

265

Check the value of the PHP_OS constant^Docs.

It will give you various values on Windows like WIN32, WINNT or Windows.

See as well: Possible Values For: PHP_OS and php_uname^Docs:

if (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN') {
    echo 'This is a server using Windows!';
} else {
    echo 'This is a server not using Windows!';
}

edited Mar 24 '18 at 03:27

sanmai

26,245
12
59
74

answered May 04 '11 at 05:40

Sander Marechal

22,658
12
62
94

What value would it be if it's Windows? There is nothing in the docs that I can see. – Shabbyrobe Jun 16 '11 at 04:48
6

Shabbyrobe: See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/738823/possible-values-for-php-os – Sander Marechal Jun 16 '11 at 13:05
16

`stripos(PHP_OS, 'WIN') === 0` can be used instead, arguably more readable / simple. – John Hunt Nov 09 '18 at 09:07
1

@dw1 - it would still work as it searches for "win" at the beginning. – John Hunt Nov 26 '18 at 12:12
And with php8 we now have `if (str_starts_with(strtoupper(PHP_OS), 'WIN')) {` – Redzarf Sep 15 '21 at 20:57

score 76 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 10 '19 at 17:04

76

You can check if the directory separator is / (for unix/linux/mac) or \ on windows. The constant name is DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.

if (DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR === '/') {
    // unix, linux, mac
}

if (DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR === '\\') {
    // windows
}

edited Nov 10 '19 at 17:04

StefansArya

2,494
3
21
23

answered May 04 '11 at 05:39

Ibu

41,298
13
73
100

Unfortunately this does not work with Windows 7 and Zend Server. In this case DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR is also '\' – Achim Apr 15 '14 at 10:54
4

@Achim What do you mean? Zend Server is server software, not an OS. Windows 7 *should* return \. – mpen Aug 06 '14 at 17:41
2

`strpos(__FILE__,92)` exploits the same behaviour; `PATH_SEPARATOR>":"` returns true for Windows too (PATH_SEPARATOR is ":" on all other OSs). – Titus Jan 08 '17 at 12:45
Turned this into a function: `function is_linux(){return (DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR == '/') ? true : false;}` – Mario Lurig Oct 06 '17 at 00:25

score 41 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 23 '12 at 00:25

41

if (strncasecmp(PHP_OS, 'WIN', 3) == 0) {
    echo 'This is a server using Windows!';
} else {
    echo 'This is a server not using Windows!';
}

seems like a bit more elegant than the accepted answer. The aforementioned detection with DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR is the fastest, though.

answered Jul 23 '12 at 00:25

Ondřej Bouda

1,051
11
16

Sorry, but this doesn't work right if you're using a Mac server, since in Mac you get a string that contains "DARWIN", which also contains "WIN", so in a Mac server you'll get "This is a server using Windows!" which is not true. – OMA Sep 28 '12 at 23:27
15

Well, this is not quite true. Notice that `strncasecmp` takes **the first** _n_ characters, not just any _n_ characters. If you tried it, you would have found out that `strncasecmp('DARWIN', 'WIN', 3) == 0` evaluates to `false`. – Ondřej Bouda Oct 14 '12 at 15:12

score 24 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 08 '19 at 16:12

24

Starting with PHP 7.2.0 you can detect the running O.S. using the constant PHP_OS_FAMILY:

if (PHP_OS_FAMILY === "Windows") {
  echo "Running on Windows";
} elseif (PHP_OS_FAMILY === "Linux") {
  echo "Running on Linux";
}

See the official PHP documentation for its possible values.

answered Sep 08 '19 at 16:12

josemmo

5,785
3
35
46

1

@Stef According to 3v4l, it's only available in PHP 7.2 https://3v4l.org/CBpG4 – Lucas Bustamante Jul 07 '21 at 15:06

score 18 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 05 '13 at 13:12

18

Note that PHP_OS reports the OS that PHP was built on, which is not necessarily the same OS that it is currently running on.

If you are on PHP >= 5.3 and just need to know whether you're running on Windows or not-Windows then testing whether one of the Windows-specific constants is defined may be a good bet, e.g.:

$windows = defined('PHP_WINDOWS_VERSION_MAJOR');

answered Feb 05 '13 at 13:12

ejn

189
1
2

5

1. Correct is not where PHP was built ON but for what it was built FOR 2. This applies to the defined windows related constant the same way... – StanE Sep 09 '14 at 11:43
1

Anyway PHP built for Windows can not be run on unix, can it? – Stalinko Dec 02 '16 at 08:11

score 9 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 23 '17 at 15:37

According to Predefined Constants: User Contributed Notes Volker's and rdcapasso solution, you can simply create helper class like this:

<?php

class System {

    const OS_UNKNOWN = 1;
    const OS_WIN = 2;
    const OS_LINUX = 3;
    const OS_OSX = 4;

    /**
     * @return int
     */
    static public function getOS() {
        switch (true) {
            case stristr(PHP_OS, 'DAR'): return self::OS_OSX;
            case stristr(PHP_OS, 'WIN'): return self::OS_WIN;
            case stristr(PHP_OS, 'LINUX'): return self::OS_LINUX;
            default : return self::OS_UNKNOWN;
        }
    }

}

Usage:

if(System::getOS() == System::OS_WIN) {
  // do something only on Windows platform
}

Anders Lindahl · Answer 7 · 2011-05-04T05:51:34.820

9

The php_uname function can be used to detect this.

echo php_uname();

edited May 04 '11 at 05:51

answered May 04 '11 at 05:39

Anders Lindahl

39,992
8
84
90

score 8 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 08 '12 at 21:24

8

This should work in PHP 4.3+:

if (strtolower(PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX) === 'dll')
{
    // Windows
}
else
{
    // Linux/UNIX/OS X
}

answered Nov 08 '12 at 21:24

Jonathon Hill

3,284
1
32
31

artnikpro · Answer 9 · 2016-08-16T09:59:49.190

5

To detect whether it's Windows, OS X or Linux:

if (stripos(PHP_OS, 'win') === 0) {
    // code for windows
} elseif (stripos(PHP_OS, 'darwin') === 0) {
    // code for OS X
} elseif (stripos(PHP_OS, 'linux') === 0) {
    // code for Linux
}

stripos is a bit slower than substr in this particular case, yet it's efficient enough for such a small task, and more elegant.

edited Aug 16 '16 at 09:59

answered Aug 15 '16 at 18:56

artnikpro

5,026
3
33
37

Although the code is simple enough, this answer does not stand on its own: A great answer doesn't force one to read the question when coming from a search engine, because it is self-contained. – jpaugh Aug 15 '16 at 23:15

score 4 · Answer 10 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Core Predefined Constants: http://us3.php.net/manual/en/reserved.constants.php which has the PHP_OS (string) constant.

Or if you want to detect the OS of the client:

<?php
    echo $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] . "\n\n";

    $browser = get_browser(null, true);
    print_r($browser);
?>

From http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.get-browser.php

According to your edit you can refer to this dublicate PHP Server Name from Command Line

You can use

string php_uname ([ string $mode = "a" ] )

So

php_uname("s")

's': Operating system name. eg. FreeBSD.

Would do the trick for you, see here http://php.net/manual/en/function.php-uname.php

score 3 · Answer 11 · edited Dec 21 '17 at 20:25

3

You can check if a constant exists in PHP >5.3.0 (manual)

if (defined('PHP_WINDOWS_VERSION_BUILD')) {
    // is Windows
}

Previously, this method was used in Symfony. Now they use a different method:

if ('\\' === DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR) {
    // is Windows
}

edited Dec 21 '17 at 20:25

Michael Käfer

1,268
1
17
30

answered Aug 30 '16 at 19:04

ghost404

289
2
15

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 22 '18 at 13:44

0

If you want to check if running under Linux, just test if (PHP_OS === 'Linux'). No need to use strtolower() and substr().

answered Aug 22 '18 at 13:44

rtribaldos

1,043
13
27

score -2 · Answer 13 · answered May 28 '16 at 17:46

-2

function isWin(){
 if (strtolower(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'win' || PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX == 'dll' || PATH_SEPARATOR == ';') {
    return true;
 } else {
    return false;
 }
}

answered May 28 '16 at 17:46

Akam

953
14
22

PHP script - detect whether running under linux or Windows?

Update

13 Answers13

Linked