ifplatform

Provides conditional commands to detect and respond to different operating system environments during document compilation.

Overview

Enables platform-specific customization in LaTeX documents by offering boolean tests to identify the underlying operating system. The package leverages shell escape functionality to determine whether compilation occurs on Windows, Unix-like systems (including Linux and macOS), or Cygwin environments.

Offers straightforward boolean commands (\ifwindows, \iflinux, \ifmacosx, \ifcygwin) for platform detection
Particularly useful for documents that need different configurations or behaviors across multiple operating systems
Preserves Unix system information through uname output for more detailed system identification
Commonly used in complex document templates, installation scripts, and cross-platform documentation projects

Getting Started

To use ifplatform, include it in your document preamble:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ifplatform}

This package requires shell escape to be enabled for proper functionality. Compile your document with:

pdflatex -shell-escape document.tex

After loading the package, you can use the provided conditionals to detect the operating system:

\ifwindows
  % Windows-specific code
\else
  % Non-Windows code
\fi

\iflinux
  % Linux-specific code
\fi

\ifmacosx
  % macOS-specific code
\fi

\ifcygwin
  % Cygwin-specific code
\fi

Examples

Using ifplatform to display different messages based on the operating system.

\noindent
This document was compiled on:

\ifwindows
  Windows operating system
\fi

\iflinux
  Linux operating system
\fi

\ifmacosx
  macOS operating system
\fi

\ifcygwin
  Cygwin environment
\fi

Creating platform-specific file paths in LaTeX documents.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ifplatform}
\usepackage{graphicx}

% Define platform-specific paths
\newcommand{\imagepath}{}
\ifwindows
  \renewcommand{\imagepath}{C:/Images/}
\else
  \renewcommand{\imagepath}{/home/user/images/}
\fi

\begin{document}
\noindent
The image path for this system is: \texttt{\imagepath}

% Example of how you might use this with graphics
% \includegraphics{\imagepath example.png}

\end{document}

Using ifplatform with the uname output to detect specific Unix variants.

\noindent
Operating system information:

\ifwindows
  Running on Windows
\else
  \ifcygwin
    Running on Cygwin
  \else
    Running on a Unix-like system
    
    \ifmacosx
      Specifically on macOS
    \fi
    
    \iflinux
      Specifically on Linux
    \fi
    
    % The uname output is available in \platformname
    \ifx\platformname\empty
      (uname information not available)
    \else
      System identification (from uname): \texttt{\platformname}
    \fi
  \fi
\fi