Re: How to detect OS type and version?

[Stefan Bellon <bellon@bauhaus-tec.com>]

Martin Dowie wrote:

> I think that you will be able to do this with "package 
> Ada.Environment_Variables" come Ada200Y, e.g.
> 
> if Ada.Environment_Variables.Exists ("OS")
>     and Ada.Environment_Variables.Value ("OS") = "Windows_NT" then
>     ...
> elsif Ada.Environment_Variables.Exists ("OSTYPE")
>        and Ada.Environment_Variables.Value ("OSTYPE") = "linux-gnu"
> then ...
> else
>     -- Unknown OS
>     ...
> end if;

This approach has one problem: Those environment variables can be set
by the user, so that the user can fake the setting to select wrong OS
dependent code.

What we are doing is this: We configure our project for the target
operating system and during that configuration, a small file with
content similar to the following is generated:

separate (Bauhaus.OS)
function Get_OS return String is
begin
   return "GNU/Linux";
end Get_OS;

This way, we have the OS type compiled in our executables and can
check wherever necessary without the fear that the user may change it.
It would be nice if this was available via some language defined
package, I agree.

-- 
Dipl.-Inf. Stefan Bellon
Bauhaus Software Technologies | TTI GmbH TGZ Softwareanalysen c/o ISTE
Tel.: +49 711 78 16 221       | Universitätsstraße 38
Fax.: +49 711 78 16 380       | 70569 Stuttgart