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Try to avoid invoking a new process to determine the Windows version in the platform module #129294
Closed as not planned
Description
Feature or enhancement
Proposal:
In Lib/platform.py, there's a code aimed to determine the Windows version python runs in.
for cmd in ('ver', 'command /c ver', 'cmd /c ver'):
try:
info = subprocess.check_output(cmd,
stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL,
stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL,
text=True,
encoding="locale",
shell=True)As much as I understand, one shouldn't invoke whole new process just to question what OS version he runs at.
so just before invoking cmd.exe, we will try to question winapi directly.
# Load ntdll.dll and call RtlGetVersion
ntdll = ctypes.WinDLL("ntdll")
rtl_get_version = ntdll.RtlGetVersion
rtl_get_version(ctypes.byref(os_version))Has this already been discussed elsewhere?
No response given
Links to previous discussion of this feature:
No response
Activity
zooba commentedon Jan 27, 2025
This is already fallback code for if WMI doesn't work, and GetVersionEx is already provided by
sys.getwindowsversion.I don't think there's anything to change here.
tomergert commentedon Jan 28, 2025
Thank you,. I addressed your comment in the PR
#129295 (comment)
zware commentedon Jul 18, 2026
In agreement with Steve, I'm going to close this issue. We may be at the point that we can remove the subprocess-based fallback entirely, but being the fallback fallback I'm not sure it's worth a change. Either way it's not a pressing concern, or a performance issue.