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Asked: 2026-05-16T04:01:20+00:00

Question: I need to make some system calls in my C# applications. Unfortunately, this

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Question:

I need to make some system calls in my C# applications.
Unfortunately, this behaves differently on Linux than on UNIX.

Now I used to switch the Operating system at runtime like this

If Environment.OSVersion.Platform = System.PlatformID.Unix Then
    ' Linux/Unix '
ElseIf Environment.OSVersion.Platform = System.PlatformID.MacOSX Then
    ' Apple '
Else
    ' Windows '
End If

The problem now is I need to differentiate between UNIX and Linux, because they are different.

Is there a way I can figure out whether the OS is Linux or Unix?
Preferably not by invoking uname -a

I wouldn’t like to abandon Unix and make it Linux only, just because Microsoft did not add a PlatformID.Linux…

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You will need to use “uname -a” to distinguish Linux from Unix, as well as OSX. For historical reasons, Mono reports OSX as Unix, not MacOSX.

    Some code that uses uname is available here:
    http://github.com/jpobst/Pinta/blob/master/Pinta/Platform.cs

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