How to detect reliably Mac OS X, iOS, Linux, Windows in C preprocessor?

Question

If there's some cross-platform C/C++ code that should be compiled on Mac OS X, iOS, Linux, Windows, how can I detect them reliably during preprocessor process?

Answer 1

There are predefined macros that are used by most compilers, you can find the list here. GCC compiler predefined macros can be found here. Here is an example for gcc:

#if defined(WIN32) || defined(_WIN32) || defined(__WIN32__) || defined(__NT__)
   //define something for Windows (32-bit and 64-bit, this part is common)
   #ifdef _WIN64
      //define something for Windows (64-bit only)
   #else
      //define something for Windows (32-bit only)
   #endif
#elif __APPLE__
    #include <TargetConditionals.h>
    #if TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR
         // iOS Simulator
    #elif TARGET_OS_IPHONE
        // iOS device
    #elif TARGET_OS_MAC
        // Other kinds of Mac OS
    #else
    #   error "Unknown Apple platform"
    #endif
#elif __linux__
    // linux
#elif __unix__ // all unices not caught above
    // Unix
#elif defined(_POSIX_VERSION)
    // POSIX
#else
#   error "Unknown compiler"
#endif

The defined macros depend on the compiler that you are going to use.

The _WIN64 #ifdef can be nested into the _WIN32 #ifdef because _WIN32 is even defined when targeting the Windows x64 version. This prevents code duplication if some header includes are common to both (also WIN32 without underscore allows IDE to highlight the right partition of code).