Visual C++ is Microsoft's compiler for C++. If something is compiled with Visual C++, it was COMPILED on Windows. There is a 99.9% chance that the underlying machine is also Windows (unless you're talking about a VM, but, still, the OS on which PG itself is running is, in fact, Windows). To the best of my knowledge, there is no way, within the PG interpreter to determine what version of Windows you're on, however. -----Original Message----- From: pgsql-admin-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Louis Lam Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 3:59 PM To: pgsql-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: How to tell what OS PostgreSQL is installed on. Hi, I have a need to find out what OS PostgreSQL is running under. I need to be able to query the database or send a command and figure it out. I also do not have super user permission to do this. All I want to know is if the PostgreSQL I am connected to is running from Windows or Non Windows. I could do "Show data_directory" and parse the result, but this require superuser permission. I tried select version() also. Under Windows OS, I got this: version --------------------------------------------------- PostgreSQL 8.3.6, compiled by Visual C++ build 1400 Does anyone know if Visual C++ is use to only compile PostgreSQL for Windows? Or can other compiler be use? If Visual C++ is always use for Windows and Windows only then this is very good information I can use. I know on RedHat, I got this. version ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- PostgreSQL 8.3.7 on i686-redhat-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-10) And on Solaris I got this. ----------------- PostgreSQL 8.1.11 on sparc-sun-solaris2.10, compiled by /ws/on10-tools/SUNWspro/SOS8/bin/cc -Xa (1 row) Thank you all in advance for your help. Louis Lam -- Sent via pgsql-admin mailing list (pgsql-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-admin