C# Environment
last modified July 5, 2023
In this article we show how to work environment and platform in C#.
The Environment type provides information about the current
environment and platform in C#. It is located in the System
namespace.
C# system information
In the following example we print some system information.
var osv = Environment.OSVersion;
Console.WriteLine($"OS: {osv.Platform}");
Console.WriteLine($"Version: {osv.Version}");
Console.WriteLine($"OS & version: {osv.VersionString}");
string userName = Environment.UserName;
string userDomName = Environment.UserDomainName;
Console.WriteLine($"User name: {userName}");
Console.WriteLine($"User domain name: {userDomName}");
The example prints the OS name and version, user name, and user domain name.
var osv = Environment.OSVersion;
The Environment.OsVersion property gets the current platform
identifier and version number.
$ dotnet run OS: Unix Version: 5.15.0.48 OS & version: Unix 5.15.0.48 User name: jano User domain name: andromeda
C# common directories
In the next example, we print some common system directories.
string curDir = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
string deskDir = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop);
string myMusicDir = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyMusic);
string addDataDir = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
string userProfDir = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile);
string myPictDir = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyPictures);
Console.WriteLine($"Current directory: {curDir}");
Console.WriteLine($"Desktop directory: {deskDir}");
Console.WriteLine($"My Music directory: {myMusicDir}");
Console.WriteLine($"Application data directory: {addDataDir}");
Console.WriteLine($"User profile directory: {userProfDir}");
Console.WriteLine($"My Pictures directory: {myPictDir}");
The example shows some common directories, including Desktop, My Music, Application Data, User Profile, and My Pictures.
$ dotnet run Current directory: /home/jano/Documents/prog/csharp/environment/EnvironmentEx Desktop directory: /home/jano/Desktop My Music directory: /home/jano/Music Application data directory: /home/jano/.config User profile directory: /home/jano My Pictures directory: /home/jano/Pictures
C# command line arguments
The next example prints command line arguments.
string cline = Environment.CommandLine;
Console.WriteLine(cline);
string[] cargs = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();
foreach (var arg in cargs)
{
Console.WriteLine(arg);
}
The Environment.CommandLine returns a string of command line
arguments. To get an array of arguments, we use the
Environment.GetCommandLineArgs method.
$ dotnet run "John Doe" gardener 34 /home/jano/Documents/prog/csharp/environment/EnvironmentEx/bin/Debug/net6.0/EnvironmentEx.dll "John Doe" gardener 34 /home/jano/Documents/prog/csharp/environment/EnvironmentEx/bin/Debug/net6.0/EnvironmentEx.dll John Doe gardener 34
C# environment variables
We can also retrieve environment variables.
using System.Collections;
string? user = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("USER");
Console.WriteLine(user);
string? shell = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SHELL");
Console.WriteLine(shell);
string? home = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("HOME");
Console.WriteLine(home);
var envs = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariables();
foreach (DictionaryEntry de in envs)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{de.Key}: {de.Value}");
}
We can get a specific environment varialbe with
GetEnvironmentVariable. To retrieve all variables, we use
GetEnvironmentVariables.
$ dotnet run jano /bin/bash /home/jano CLUTTER_IM_MODULE: ibus SDKMAN_VERSION: 5.16.0 PANEL_GDK_CORE_DEVICE_EVENTS: 0 MICRONAUT_HOME: /home/jano/.sdkman/candidates/micronaut/current LC_PAPER: sk_SK.UTF-8 ...
Source
Environment class - language reference
In this article we worked with Environment in C#.
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