Detect OS and Runtime Versions Action

Detects your runner's operating system and installed tool versions, providing detailed outputs for conditional workflow steps.

Features

Works across Linux, macOS, and Windows runners using multiple fallback detection methods. The action identifies your OS distribution and architecture, then checks for installed development tools. Each tool provides semantic versioning components (major, minor, patch) so you can conditionally install updates only when needed.

Usage

Basic example

steps:
  - uses: https://code.forgejo.org/actions/checkout@v5

  - name: Detect OS and tools
    id: detect
    uses: https://git.cisnt.uk/actions/detect-versions@v1

  - name: Show detection results
    run: |
      echo "OS: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.name }}"
      echo "Version: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.version }}"
      echo "Architecture: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.arch }}"
      echo "Node.js: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.node_version }}"

Conditional tool installation

steps:
  - name: Detect OS and tools
    id: detect
    uses: https://git.cisnt.uk/actions/detect-versions@v1

  - name: Setup Node.js if missing or outdated
    if: steps.detect.outputs.node_major == '' || steps.detect.outputs.node_major < '20'
    uses: https://github.com/actions/setup-node@v5
    with:
      node-version: 22

Smart cache keys

steps:
  - name: Detect OS and tools
    id: detect
    uses: https://git.cisnt.uk/actions/detect-versions@v1

  - name: Cache dependencies
    uses: actions/cache@v3
    with:
      path: ~/.cache
      key: deps-${{ steps.detect.outputs.slug }}-${{ steps.detect.outputs.arch }}-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
      restore-keys: |
        deps-${{ steps.detect.outputs.slug }}-${{ steps.detect.outputs.arch }}-
        deps-${{ steps.detect.outputs.slug }}-

Outputs

Operating system outputs

Output	Description	Example Values
name	Operating system name	Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, macOS, Windows
version	OS version number	22.04, 11, 13.2, 2022
slug	Combined OS identifier	Ubuntu-22.04, macOS-13, Windows-2022
arch	System architecture	x64, arm64, arm

Tool version outputs

Each tool provides {tool}_version (full version), {tool}_major, {tool}_minor, and {tool}_patch outputs:

• cmake - CMake build system (e.g. 3.28.1)
• docker - Docker container platform (e.g. 24.0.7)
• git - Git version control (e.g. 2.43.0)
• go - Go programming language (e.g. 1.21.5)
• java - Java runtime (e.g. 21.0.1 or 1.8.0_392)
• node - Node.js JavaScript runtime (e.g. 20.11.1)
• python - Python interpreter (e.g. 3.11.5)
• rust - Rust programming language (e.g. 1.75.0)

Returns empty strings for tools that aren't installed.

Supported platforms

Supports Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Fedora), macOS 11+, and Windows Server 2019/2022. Uses multiple detection methods starting with the most reliable - lsb_release on Linux, sw_vers on macOS, and systeminfo on Windows, with appropriate fallbacks.

Example outputs by platform

Output	Ubuntu	macOS	Windows
name	Ubuntu	macOS	Windows
version	22.04	13.2	2022
slug	Ubuntu-22.04	macOS-13.2	Windows-2022
arch	x64	x64	x64

Contributing

Issues and pull requests can be submitted via the GitHub mirror at https://github.com/liminalpurple/detect-versions

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE for details.