Thread: Check Operating System

Hey, I was wondering how one would go about checking what operating system the user was working in. That's all thanks

Standard C doesn't care about which OS you're on, so there is no standard way to find out. Not that this is much of a problem, since each OS has a different executable format (not to mention many different processor types), you can't just compile a bit of code and then expect it to execute on any machine.

When you compile the code, you typically have

Code:

#ifdef DOS
/* code specific to DOS here */
#elifdef WIN32
/* code specific to Win32 here */
#elif LINUX
/* code specific to Linux here */
#else
#error Need another OS
#endif

Unfortunately, there is no standard naming convention for those defines.

An alternative is to put all the non-portable code into
porting_dos.c
porting_win32.c
porting_linux.c

In either case, it's a good idea to minimise the amount of code in such places.

Alrighty, thanks. I was just wondering because in a program I'm writing / playing with, I want to clear the screen as the first thing i.e. windows: system("cls"); linux: system("clear"); but its not vital.. so thank you