Detect that a python program is running on the pi

Question

I've got a python script that uses sys.platform.startswith('linux') to test if it is on linux or not, but then I can't tell the difference between the x86/64 processor, and the raspberry pi's ARM processor.

The reason I need this, is to run an external script that's compiled for either mac, linux x86/64, or linux ARM for the raspberry pi.

From what I can tell, there's not really a unified way to tell that you are in fact running on a raspberry pi. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use Python's os module to obtain this information through uname:

import os
os.uname()

This function should provide platform and other information on most Linux or Unix-like distributions.

From the Python documentation:

os.uname()

Return a 5-tuple containing information identifying the current operating system. The tuple contains five strings: (sysname, nodename, release, version, machine). Some systems truncate the nodename to eight characters or to the leading component; a better way to get the hostname is socket.gethostname() or even socket.gethostbyaddr(socket.gethostname()).

Availability: recent flavors of Unix.

Answer 2

I found you can get the Pi model and version from:

/sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model

Ex: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2

I have a shell script to look for this and return the contents if it exists. An OS call to read the file if it exists should set you right. The premise is, if it doesn't exist, its definitely not a RPi. If it does, then inspect the content to be sure.

Answer 3

Here is a simplified version of @Artur Barseghyan's answer

import io
import os

def is_raspberrypi():
    if os.name != 'posix':
        return False
    chips = ('BCM2708','BCM2709','BCM2711','BCM2835','BCM2836')
    try:
        with io.open('/proc/cpuinfo', 'r') as cpuinfo:
            for line in cpuinfo:
                if line.startswith('Hardware'):
                    _, value = line.strip().split(':', 1)
                    value = value.strip()
                    if value in chips:
                        return True
    except Exception:
        pass
    return False

Or for an even leaner solution as suggested by @Dougie without the need to maintain an updated list of chipsets.

def is_raspberrypi():
    try:
        with io.open('/sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model', 'r') as m:
            if 'raspberry pi' in m.read().lower(): return True
    except Exception: pass
    return False

Answer 4

platform.machine() will return:

• armv7l on Raspberry Pi running on Raspbian 32-bit.
• aarch64 on all Arm 64-bit OSes, including those running in Amazon AWS Graviton2.

So this is a more reliable way of detecting Arm, if your program is written for Arm, instead of Raspberry Pi specifically.

Answer 5

This is more of a problem with the advent of the Pi 2 (which is not simple to distinguish from the Beaglebone Black). The highest level of detail is found in /proc/cpuinfo on Linux-based systems (the 'Hardware' line). Here's an example of parsing that, from the Adafruit GPIO code:

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_GPIO/blob/master/Adafruit_GPIO/Platform.py

Answer 6

The best widely-applicable system-identifying information I have found has been with:

platform._syscmd_uname('-a')

This appears to give the same output as the shell command uname -a. In most cases the returned output is essentially the same (a string instead of a 5-tuple) as that of os.uname().

The ones I've tested and found equivalent outputs are OSX 10.9.5, Ubuntu 14.04, and Raspbian (??) Wheezy. On a Synology NAS, though, I get more information from the platform._syscmd_uname('-a') version:

>>> os.uname()
('Linux', [hostname], '3.10.35', [...], 'x86_64')
>>> platform._syscmd_uname('-a')
'Linux [hostname] 3.10.35 [...] x86_64 GNU/Linux synology_cedarview_1813+'

Seeing "synology" in the output there identifies it as an environment where things behave unexpectedly.

Answer 7

Better way of doing this (Python code snippet):

import io


def is_raspberry_pi(raise_on_errors=False):
    """Checks if Raspberry PI.

    :return:
    """
    try:
        with io.open('/proc/cpuinfo', 'r') as cpuinfo:
            found = False
            for line in cpuinfo:
                if line.startswith('Hardware'):
                    found = True
                    label, value = line.strip().split(':', 1)
                    value = value.strip()
                    if value not in (
                        'BCM2708',
                        'BCM2709',
                        'BCM2711',
                        'BCM2835',
                        'BCM2836'
                    ):
                        if raise_on_errors:
                            raise ValueError(
                                'This system does not appear to be a '
                                'Raspberry Pi.'
                            )
                        else:
                            return False
            if not found:
                if raise_on_errors:
                    raise ValueError(
                        'Unable to determine if this system is a Raspberry Pi.'
                    )
                else:
                    return False
    except IOError:
        if raise_on_errors:
            raise ValueError('Unable to open `/proc/cpuinfo`.')
        else:
            return False

    return True


IS_RASPBERRY_PI = is_raspberry_pi()

Answer 8

I've used this simple function previously:

from pathlib import Path
import re

CPUINFO_PATH = Path("/proc/cpuinfo")


def is_raspberry_pi():
    if not CPUINFO_PATH.exists():
        return False
    with open(CPUINFO_PATH) as f:
        cpuinfo = f.read()
    return re.search(r"^Model\s*:\s*Raspberry Pi", cpuinfo, flags=re.M) is not None

It just checks that the /proc/cpuinfo file exists, and then checks if there is a Model line that matches Raspberry Pi.

It might not be completely generic, but it does not rely on BCM-processor being used exclusively for Raspberry Pi:s, nor arm, so it should give very few false positives, but possibly risks to return some false negatives in case Raspberry Pi OS changes the cpuinfo.

Tested on Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 3B.

Answer 9

You can simply check if the file /etc/rpi-issue exists with pathlib.

from pathlib import Path
IS_RPI = Path("/etc/rpi-issue").exists()

I know the file can be created easily but every raspberyOS and Raspbian has that file.

Answer 10

On PI 3

import os    
os.uname()[1] == 'raspberrypi'

Because:

uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 4.4.50-v7+ #970 SMP Mon Feb 20 19:18:29 GMT 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux