Node.js - detect operating system name (Windows, Linux, macOS)

In this short article, we would like to show how to detect used operating system in Node.js application.

Quick solution:

const os = require('os');

console.log(os.type());  // e.g. Windows_NT, Linux, Darwin, etc.

Reusable function

In this section, you can find function that lets in simple way to detect normalised operating system name omitting details, e.g. NT postfix for Windows, etc.

const os = require('os');

const detectOSType = () => {
    const type = os.type();
    if (type.startsWith('Windows')) return 'Windows';
    if (type.startsWith('Linux'))   return 'Linux';
    if (type.startsWith('Darwin'))  return 'Mac';
    return 'UNKNOWN';
};


// Usage example:

console.log(detectOSType());  // e.g. Windows, Linux, Mac and UNKNOWN

Alternative solution

Node.js API provides information about platform that helps in easy way to detect operating system.

const detectOSType = () => {
    switch (process.platform) {
        case 'win32':  return 'Windows';
        case 'linux':  return 'Linux';
        case 'darwin': return 'Mac';
        default:       return 'UNKNOWN';
    }
};


// Usage example:

console.log(detectOSType());  // e.g. Windows, Linux, Mac and UNKNOWN

References

1. Node.js process.platform - API Docs