hwinfo

hwinfo provides an easy-to-use and modern C++ API for retrieving hardware information of your systems components such as CPU, RAM, GPU, Disks, Mainboard, ...

hwinfo automatically uses the latest C++ standard supported by your compiler. C++20 is required for GPU OpenCL support if enabled (configurable with HWINFO_GPU_OPENCL).

Note

If you face any issues, find bugs or if your platform is not supported yet, do not hesitate to create an issue.

Content

• Supported Components
• API
• Build hwinfo
• Example
• Include hwinfo to cmake project

Supported Components

Note

The listed components that are not yet implemented (indicated with ❌) are in development and will be supported in later releases. You are welcome to start contributing and help improving this library!

Component	Info	Linux	Apple	Windows
CPU	Vendor	✔️	❌️	✔️
	Model	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Frequency	✔️	❌️	✔️
	Physical Cores	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Logical Cores	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Cache Size	✔️	❌️	✔️
GPU	Vendor	✔️	❌️	✔️
	Model	✔️	❌️	✔️
	Memory Size	❌	❌	✔️
Memory (RAM)	Vendor	❌	❌	✔️
	Model	❌	❌	✔️
	Name	❌	❌	✔️
	Serial Number	❌	❌	✔️
	Total Memory Size	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Free Memory Size	✔️	❌	❌
Mainboard	Vendor	✔️	❌	✔️
	Model	✔️	❌	✔️
	Version	✔️	❌	✔️
	Serial-Number	❌	❌	✔️
	Bios	❌	❌	❌
Disk	Vendor	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Model	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Serial-Number	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Size	✔️	✔️	✔️
Operating System	Name	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Short Name	✔️	❌️	✔️
	Version	✔️	✔️	❌
	Kernel	✔️	✔️	❌
	Architecture (Bit)	✔️	✔️	✔️
	Endianess	✔️	✔️	✔️
Battery	Vendor	✔️	❌️	❌
	Model	✔️	❌	❌
	Serial Number	✔️	✔️	❌
	Technology	✔️	❌	❌
	Capacity	✔️	✔️	️❌
	Charging	✔️	✔️	❌

All components are available via the hwinfo::hwinfo target, or via individual CMake targets, which you can choose and link against depending on your needs.

target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE hwinfo::hwinfo)

or

target_link_libraries(
  your_target
  PRIVATE hwinfo::cpu
          hwinfo::gpu
          hwinfo::ram
          hwinfo::mainboard
          hwinfo::disk
          hwinfo::os
          hwinfo::battery)

The CMake options control which components will be built and available in the library:

• HWINFO_OS "Enable OS detection" (default to ON)
• HWINFO_MAINBOARD "Enable mainboard detection" (default to ON)
• HWINFO_CPU "Enable CPU detection" (default to ON)
• HWINFO_DISK "Enable disk detection" (default to ON)
• HWINFO_RAM "Enable RAM detection" (default to ON)
• HWINFO_GPU "Enable GPU detection" (default to ON)
• HWINFO_GPU_OPENCL "Enable usage of OpenCL in GPU information" (default to OFF)
• HWINFO_BATTERY "Enable battery detection" (default to ON)

API

This section describes, how you can get information about the supported components of your computer.

CPU

hwinfo supports reading CPU information on boards with multiple sockets and CPUs installed. getAllSockets() returns a std::vector<Socket>. A Socket object represents a physical socket and holds information about the installed CPU. You can access these information via Socket::CPU() which retuns a CPU instance.

Why not just retrieving a std::vector<CPU>? The reason for this lies within how linux handles CPUs. For linux systems, the cores of a multi core CPU are considered as different physical CPUs. Thus, I added the Socket layer to make clear, that multiple elements in the yielded std::vector<Socket> vector mean that there are two CPUs on two different sockets installed.

The following methods are available for CPU:

• const std::string& CPU::vendor() const "GenuineIntel"
• const std::string& CPU::modelName() const "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz"
• int64_t CPU::cacheSize_Bytes() const 16384000
• int CPU::numPhysicalCores() const 8
• int CPU::numLogicalCores() const 16
• int64_t CPU::maxClockSpeed_MHz() const 5100000
• int64_t CPU::regularClockSpeed_MHz() const 3800000
• int64_t CPU::minClockSpeed_MHz() const 1800000
• int64_t CPU::currentClockSpeed_MHz() const 4700189
• const std::vector<std::string>& CPU::flags() cosnt {"SSE", "AVX", ...}

GPU

You can also get information about all installed GPUs using hwinfo. getAllGPUs() returns a std::vector<GPU>. A GPU object represents a physical GPU.

The following methods are available for GPU:

• const std::string& GPU::vendor() const "NVIDIA"
• const std::string& GPU::name() const "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti"
• const std::string& GPU::driverVersion() const "31.0.15.2698" (empty for linux)
• int64_t GPU::memory_Bytes() const 8190000000
• int64_t GPU::min_frequency_MHz() const
• int64_t GPU::current_frequency_MHz() const
• int64_t GPU::max_frequency_MHz() const
• int GPU::id() const 0

RAM

TODO

OS

TODO

Baseboard

TODO

Disk

TODO

Build hwinfo

Requirements: git, cmake, c++ compiler (gcc, clang, MSVC)

1. Download repository:

   git clone https://github.com/lfreist/hwinfo
   

2. Build using cmake:

   mkdir build
   cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release  # -DNO_OCL=ON (for C++11)
   cmake --build build
   

Example

See system_infoMain.cpp

The output should look similar to this one:

Hardware Report:

----------------------------------- CPU -----------------------------------
Socket 0:
 vendor:            GenuineIntel
 model:             Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz
 physical cores:    8
 logical cores:     16
 max frequency:     3792
 regular frequency: 3792
 min frequency:     -1
 current frequency: 3792
 cache size:        16777216
----------------------------------- OS ------------------------------------
Operating System:   Microsoft Windows 11 Professional (build 22621)
short name:         Windows
version:            <unknown>
kernel:             <unknown>
architecture:       64 bit
endianess:          little endian
----------------------------------- GPU -----------------------------------
GPU 0:
  vendor:           NVIDIA
  model:            NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
  driverVersion:    31.0.15.2698
  memory [MiB]:     8190
  min frequency:    0
  cur frequency:    0
  max frequency:    0
----------------------------------- RAM -----------------------------------
vendor:             Corsair
model:              CMK32GX4M2Z3600C18
name:               Physical Memory
serial-number:      ***
size [MiB]:         65437
free [MiB]:         54405
available [MiB]:    54405
------------------------------- Main Board --------------------------------
vendor:             ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
name:               PRIME Z490-A
version:            Rev 1.xx
serial-number:      ***
------------------------------- Batteries ---------------------------------
No Batteries installed or detected
--------------------------------- Disks -----------------------------------
Disk 0:
  vendor:           (Standard disk drives)
  model:            WD_BLACK SN850 Heatsink 1TB
  serial-number:    ***.
  size:             1000202273280
Disk 1:
  vendor:           (Standard disk drives)
  model:            Intenso SSD Sata III
  serial-number:    ***
  size:             120031511040
Disk 2:
  vendor:           (Standard disk drives)
  model:            KINGSTON SA400S37240G
  serial-number:    ***
  size:             240054796800
Disk 3:
  vendor:           (Standard disk drives)
  model:            WDS500G3X0C-00SJG0
  serial-number:    ***.
  size:             500105249280
Disk 4:
  vendor:           (Standard disk drives)
  model:            ST750LM022 HN-M750MBB
  serial-number:    ***
  size:             750153761280
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Directly including hwinfo in your cmake project

1. Download hwinfo into your project (e.g. in <project-root>/third_party/hwinfo)

   mkdir third_party
   cd third_party
   git clone https://github.com/lfreist/hwinfo
   

2. Simply add the following to your <project-root>/CMakeLists.txt file:

   # file: <project-root>/CMakeLists.txt
   
   # define the HWINFO_* options if you want to change the default values
   
   add_subdirectory(third_party/hwinfo)
   

3. Include hwinfo into your .cpp/.h files:

   // file: your_executable.cpp
   
   #include "hwinfo/hwinfo.h"
   
   int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    // Your code
   }
   

4. Link it in cmake

   add_executable(your_executable your_executable.cpp)
   target_link_libraries(your_executable PUBLIC hwinfo::hwinfo)