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  3. Node.js — Determine the Current Operating System

Node.js — Determine the Current Operating System

In some situations, you may want to detect the underlying operating system of your application. This may happen if you’re using a feature switch or limited feature support on a given platform. For example, you may allow special characters on Unix-based systems and not on Windows.

This tutorial shows you how to detect the current operating system using Node.js.

Node.js Series Overview

  1. Increase the Memory Limit for Your Process
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  5. Retrieve a Request’s IP Address in Node.js
  6. Detect the Node.js Version in a Running Process or App
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  8. How to Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript or Node.js
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  10. Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript and Node.js
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  20. Get the Part After First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  21. Get the Part Before First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  22. Get the Part Before Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  23. Get the Part After Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  24. How to Count Words in a File
  25. How to Shuffle the Characters of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  26. Append Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  27. Check if a String is Empty in JavaScript or Node.js
  28. Ensure a String Ends with a Given Character in JavaScript or Node.js
  29. Left-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js
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  8. How to Get a UNIX Timestamp in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. How to Convert a UNIX Timestamp to a Date in JavaScript or Node.js
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  7. Overview of Promise-Based APIs in Node.js
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  3. Create a Custom “toJSON” Function in Node.js and JavaScript
  4. Securely Parse JSON
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  5. Use Numeric Separators for Better Readability
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  8. Check if a Value is a Number
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  2. How to Check if an Object is Empty in JavaScript or Node.js
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  3. How to Create an Empty File
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  5. How to Rename a File
  6. Check If a Path Is a Directory
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  9. How to Touch a File
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  11. Check If a Directory Is Empty
  12. How to Create a Directory (and Parents If Needed)
  13. Get a File‘s Extension
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  15. Get a File Name (With or Without Extension)
  16. Read a JSON File
  17. Delete a File From Disk
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  2. Show Your NODE_MODULE_VERSION
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  2. Strict Type for Request Headers with TypeScript
  1. Calculate an MD5 Hash
  2. Retrieve the List of Supported Hash Algorithms
  3. Calculate a SHA256 Hash
  4. Calculate a SHA512 Hash

Detect Operating System in Node.js

Node.js comes with the built-in os module providing methods related to the operating system. You can retrieve the current operating system identifier for which the Node.js binary was compiled using the os.platform() method.

Here’s how you detect the current operating system using Node.js:

import os from 'node:os'

/**
 * Returns the operating system identifier for which the Node.js binary was compiled.
 *
 * @returns {string}
 */
function os() {  
  return os.platform()
}

The following values are supported at the time of writing this tutorial:
- aix - android - darwin (macOS) - freebsd - linux - openbsd - sunos - win32 (Windows)

The returned value from os.platform() is identical to process.platform. The global Node.js process variable could be a shortcut if you don’t want to import the os module:

// provides the identical value as `os.platform()`
const os = process.platform

We prefer the explicit os.platform() over process.platform. Please decide the way you like best.

That’s it!

Mentioned Resources

Marcus Pöhls

Marcus is a fullstack JS developer. He’s passionate about the hapi framework for Node.js and loves to build web apps and APIs. Creator of Futureflix and the “learn hapi” learning path.

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