<os> - Defining OS Restrictions

The <os> element affects the applicability of the enclosing (parent) element.

It restricts the parent element to applying only when the installation is being done on the specified operating systems or processor architecture.

It can be embedded into the following elements:

Attributes

Although each attribute is not required, it makes no sense to include <os> unless you specify at least one of family, name or arch. If <os> is specified with none of these, the parent element will be ignored in all installation environments.

Attribute

Description

Required

Values

family

OS Family to restrict to

no

"unix" | "windows" | "mac"

name

Exact OS name to restrict to

no

Valid OS name defined by the OS vendor, for example "Windows XP" or "Linux"

version

Exact OS version (see the Java os.version system property)

no

Valid OS version

arch

System architecture/processor to restrict to (see the Java os.arch system property)

no

Valid OS architecture

Using OS Restrictions

The following example says that the <executable> element only applies when the installation is being done on a unix-like operating system.

Example:

<packs>
(...)
    <pack name="Core" required="yes">
    (...)
        <executable targetfile="$INSTALL_PATH/bin/compile" stage="never">
            <os family="unix"/>
        </executable>
    (...)
    </pack>
(...)
</packs>