osutil

Go library to detect the operating system, its version, distribution and architecture.

Install

go get github.com/wille/osutil

Usage

package main

import (
	"fmt"

	"github.com/wille/osutil"
)

func main() {
	fmt.Println(osutil.Name)             // e.g. "Linux"
	fmt.Println(osutil.GetVersion())     // e.g. "6.8.0-40-generic"
	fmt.Println(osutil.GetDisplay())     // e.g. "Ubuntu 24.04"
	fmt.Println(osutil.GetDisplayArch()) // e.g. "amd64"

	dist := osutil.GetDist()
	fmt.Println(dist.Display)  // e.g. "Ubuntu"
	fmt.Println(dist.Release)  // e.g. "24.04"
	fmt.Println(dist.Codename) // e.g. "noble"
}

API

osutil.Name

A constant holding the name of the operating system the binary was built for. It equals one of the exported name constants:

osutil.Windows      // "Windows"
osutil.MacOS        // "macOS"
osutil.Linux        // "Linux"
osutil.FreeBSD      // "FreeBSD"
osutil.OpenBSD      // "OpenBSD"
osutil.DragonflyBSD // "DragonFlyBSD"
osutil.NetBSD       // "NetBSD"
osutil.Solaris      // "Solaris"

On any other platform Name falls back to Go's runtime.GOOS.

GetVersion() string

Returns the OS version. Its meaning is platform-specific:

Platform	Returns	Example
macOS	macOS release number	15.0, 10.15
Windows	Windows edition	10, 8.1, XP
Linux	Kernel version (uname -r)	6.8.0-40-generic
FreeBSD and others	empty string	""

GetDisplay() string

Returns a human-readable name combining the OS and version. Never empty.

Platform	Example
macOS	macOS 15.0 Sequoia
Windows	Windows 10
Linux	Ubuntu 24.04 (or Linux if the distro is unknown)
FreeBSD	FreeBSD 13.2 (or FreeBSD)

GetDist() Distro

Returns distribution details as a Distro value:

type Distro struct {
	Display  string // e.g. "Ubuntu", "openSUSE", "macOS"
	Release  string // e.g. "24.04", "15.3", "15.0"
	Codename string // e.g. "noble", "Leap", "Sequoia"
}

• Linux detects the distribution via lsb_release and /etc/os-release (Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mint, Gentoo, Fedora, CentOS, Oracle, Arch, Kali, ...).
• macOS maps the kernel version to the release (e.g. {macOS, 15.0, Sequoia}).
• FreeBSD reports the running version.
• On other platforms it returns the zero Distro{}.

GetDisplayArch() string

Returns the architecture the binary was built for (runtime.GOARCH), e.g. amd64, arm64, 386.