Determine OS from within ULP

"Warren Brayshaw" <warrenbrayshaw@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message

news:iudv2t$ucs$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

Greetings

 

I'm developing my first ULP that needs to react differently depending on

the

operating system.

What is considered the preferred method of determining the Operating

System

from within a ULP?

I'd say use the system() function to try executing "ver" for windows..

"uname " or "lsb_release -a" for linux.. And something similar for

mac?

Not a good solution tho.

Morten Leikvoll wrote on Wed, 29 June 2011 05:51

"Warren Brayshaw" <<private_email>> wrote in message

news:iudv2t$ucs$<private_email>...

Greetings

 

I'm developing my first ULP that needs to react differently

depending on

the

operating system.

What is considered the preferred method of determining the

Operating

System

from within a ULP?

 

I'd say use the system() function to try executing "ver" for windows..

 

"uname " or "lsb_release -a" for linux.. And something similar

for

mac?

Not a good solution tho.

I looked into something like this about a year ago for the same reason.

From memory, I believe the ver command was the way I did it.  In Windows

you get back an error message and Mac and Linux give you something you can

parse.  I had to pipe it to a file and then search the file.  Ugly, but it

did work.

Cheers,

James.

--

James Morrison  ~~~  Stratford Digital

Specializing in CadSoft EAGLE

• Online Sales to North America

• Electronic Design Services

• EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit

--

Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

Am 29.06.2011 16:28, schrieb James Morrison:

I looked into something like this about a year ago for the same reason.

From memory, I believe the ver command was the way I did it.  In Windows

you get back an error message and Mac and Linux give you something you can

parse.  I had to pipe it to a file and then search the file.  Ugly, but it

did work.

Everything executed via the 'system' command has the problem that it at

least flashes the DOS shell window (when run under Windows), which is a

nuisance. If you're only interested in knowing the difference between

Windows and anything else, do it as follows:

int IsWindows() {

   //Returns 1, if EAGLE is running under Windows (0 for Linux/Mac)

   if ((strsub(argv[0],0,1)=="/") && (strsub(argv[0],0,2)!="//"))

     return 0;

   return 1;

   }

This does NOT call any external program and, for our institute, works

reliably since years. But, yes, I AM interested in getting to know how

to reliably tell the difference between a Mac and Linux...

Andreas Weidner

James Morrison: wrote

>> I looked into something like this about a year ago for the same

>>  reason. From memory, I believe the ver command was the way I did

>> it.  In Windows you get back an error message and Mac and Linux give

>> you something you can parse.  I had to pipe it to a file and then

>> search the file.  Ugly, but it did work.

Andreas Weidner wrote:

 

Everything executed via the 'system' command has the problem that it

at least flashes the DOS shell window (when run under Windows), which

is a nuisance. If you're only interested in knowing the difference

between Windows and anything else, do it as follows:

 

int IsWindows() {

   //Returns 1, if EAGLE is running under Windows (0 for Linux/Mac)

   if ((strsub(argv[0],0,1)=="/") && (strsub(argv[0],0,2)!="//"))

     return 0;

   return 1;

   }

 

This does NOT call any external program and, for our institute, works

reliably since years. But, yes, I AM interested in getting to know how

to reliably tell the difference between a Mac and Linux...

 

Andreas Weidner

Thanks for the replies everyone. If there are further methods being used by

others I would like to here about them.

My current needs, as I understand them at this point, is to be able to

determine Windows from the other two. Andreas' solution is elegant.

Other ideas:

For those installations where there are two paths in the Eagle

Options/Directories you could detect the semicolon (Windows) or colon

(Linux-Mac) in eaglerc.usr

Detecting eaglerc.usr or .eaglerc may be possible also but gives no more

than Andreas' solution.

That said it would be good to determine a technique that does differentiate

between Linux and Mac.

Something like detecting a root folder lib (Linux) or Library (Mac)? Or var

(Linix) vs System (Mac)?

In a well locked down institution, can a user still detect the presence of

these folders?

I have been trying a few ideas via JavaScript or vbs to get past the

flashing command window and this could be another path to obtaining the OS

but comes with security issues.

Would be OK for institutions with a certificate server.

Right now I'm having an issue with the system() command (I think)  adding

eagles install path ahead of my path. Yet to solve that one, if its possible

Regards

Warren

"Warren Brayshaw" <warrenbrayshaw@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message

news:iudv2t$ucs$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

Greetings

 

I'm developing my first ULP that needs to react differently depending on

the

operating system.

What is considered the preferred method of determining the Operating

System

from within a ULP?

May I ask why you need to detect this? Depending on what you try to do,

there could be alternative solutions..

Morten Leikvoll wrote:

May I ask why you need to detect this? Depending on what you try to

do, there could be alternative solutions..

The need is to provide the correct formatting for the strings passed with

the system() ULP command and the formatting of batch files created by the

ULP and used by the OS script processors.

When the system() command is involved it appears to be most common (easier)

for a ULP to be crafted solely for use with Windows or Linux/Mac. I wish to

make a ULP that will work in both environments hence the formatting needs to

be appropriate for the OS in use.

Warren

"Warren Brayshaw" <warrenbrayshaw@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message

news:iuhjh9$8o3$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

Morten Leikvoll wrote:

 

>> May I ask why you need to detect this? Depending on what you try to

>> do, there could be alternative solutions..

>

The need is to provide the correct formatting for the strings passed with

the system() ULP command and the formatting of batch files created by the

ULP and used by the OS script processors.

When the system() command is involved it appears to be most common

(easier)

for a ULP to be crafted solely for use with Windows or Linux/Mac. I wish

to

make a ULP that will work in both environments hence the formatting needs

to

be appropriate for the OS in use.

So I guess a platform dependant batch file that takes the same arguments on

all platforms could sort the case?

I guess you can make linux autorun a xxx.bat file (not sure bout mac), and

windows can for sure.

I tried creating a file called test.bat on both (set the x flag on linux),

and I could run them both with "./test.bat" from shell's (I haven't got

linux eagle install, so you may want to try it)

Morten Leikvoll wrote:

"Warren Brayshaw" <warrenbrayshaw@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message

news:iuhjh9$8o3$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

>> Morten Leikvoll wrote:

>>

>>> May I ask why you need to detect this? Depending on what you try to

>>> do, there could be alternative solutions..

>>

>>

>> The need is to provide the correct formatting for the strings passed

>> with the system() ULP command and the formatting of batch files

>> created by the ULP and used by the OS script processors.

>> When the system() command is involved it appears to be most common

>> (easier)

>> for a ULP to be crafted solely for use with Windows or Linux/Mac. I

>> wish to

>> make a ULP that will work in both environments hence the formatting

>> needs to

>> be appropriate for the OS in use.

 

So I guess a platform dependant batch file that takes the same

arguments on all platforms could sort the case?

I guess you can make linux autorun a xxx.bat file (not sure bout

mac), and windows can for sure.

I tried creating a file called test.bat on both (set the x flag on

linux), and I could run them both with "./test.bat" from shell's (I

haven't got linux eagle install, so you may want to try it)

Thanks for the input Morten:

The thread has moved away from my request for methods to detect the

operating system from within a ULP.

Further ideas from those with expeience with achieving this would be

appreciated.

Warren

"Warren Brayshaw" <warrenbrayshaw@paradise.net.nz> wrote:

Morten Leikvoll wrote:

>> "Warren Brayshaw" <warrenbrayshaw@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message

>> news:iuhjh9$8o3$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

>>> Morten Leikvoll wrote:

>>>

>>>> May I ask why you need to detect this? Depending on what you try to

>>>> do, there could be alternative solutions..

>>>

>>>

>>> The need is to provide the correct formatting for the strings passed

>>> with the system() ULP command and the formatting of batch files

>>> created by the ULP and used by the OS script processors.

>>> When the system() command is involved it appears to be most common

>>> (easier)

>>> for a ULP to be crafted solely for use with Windows or Linux/Mac. I

>>> wish to

>>> make a ULP that will work in both environments hence the formatting

>>> needs to

>>> be appropriate for the OS in use.

>>

>> So I guess a platform dependant batch file that takes the same

>> arguments on all platforms could sort the case?

>> I guess you can make linux autorun a xxx.bat file (not sure bout

>> mac), and windows can for sure.

>> I tried creating a file called test.bat on both (set the x flag on

>> linux), and I could run them both with "./test.bat" from shell's (I

>> haven't got linux eagle install, so you may want to try it)

 

Thanks for the input Morten:

The thread has moved away from my request for methods to detect the

operating system from within a ULP.

Further ideas from those with expeience with achieving this would be

appreciated.

Yea I know I branced off the main topic, but when I thought about it a

couple of times I lean to that the optimal place to do it is outside eagle.

Sounds cleanest to me in any case.

On 6/29/2011 12:33 PM, Andreas Weidner wrote:

Am 29.06.2011 16:28, schrieb James Morrison:

>> I looked into something like this about a year ago for the same reason.

>> From memory, I believe the ver command was the way I did it. In Windows

>> you get back an error message and Mac and Linux give you something you

>> can

>> parse. I had to pipe it to a file and then search the file. Ugly, but it

>> did work.

 

Everything executed via the 'system' command has the problem that it at

least flashes the DOS shell window (when run under Windows), which is a

nuisance. If you're only interested in knowing the difference between

Windows and anything else, do it as follows:

 

int IsWindows() {

//Returns 1, if EAGLE is running under Windows (0 for Linux/Mac)

if ((strsub(argv[0],0,1)=="/") && (strsub(argv[0],0,2)!="//"))

return 0;

return 1;

}

 

This does NOT call any external program and, for our institute, works

reliably since years. But, yes, I AM interested in getting to know how

to reliably tell the difference between a Mac and Linux...

 

Andreas Weidner

isn't there a way to run the shell window minimized in windows? i think

a shortcut that is declared to be minimized and just passes args to

cmd.exe would do the trick.

i think it is also possible to run a program in windows completely

invisibly but it can't be done from the OS interface, you have to hex

the shortcut file. it's documented but i haven't had much luck with it.