Find the UUID for your machine

Scripting Forums Code Exchange
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#1

Ief2 and Nigel Garvey helped me out with this little routine to find the UUID of a machine through System Profiler:

do shell script “system_profiler | grep ‘Hardware UUID’”

This can be used in a routine to assign designated software to a specific machine and thereby limiting the use of the software to authorized machines only.

Thanks Again Guys,
Dan

#2

And if you don’t want to wait twelve seconds or more for the result, you can limit “system_profiler”'s data gathering to just the hardware by using the “SPHardwareDataType” parameter:


do shell script "system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep 'Hardware UUID:'"
set uuid to text ((offset of ":" in result) + 2) thru -1 of result
#3

nitpicking

awk instead of grep can do the filter task directly


set uuid to do shell script "system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | awk '/Hardware UUID:/ {print $NF}'"
#4

No. That’s great. Thanks, Stefan. :cool:

#5

Hello.

I couldn’t resist. :slight_smile:
Nitpicking a little bit more, and maybe saving an odd millisecond or two, if the processor feels for it at that moment.

/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | /usr/sbin/sed -n 's/Hardware UUID:\(.*\)/\1/p'

I think I read some place that hardware serial numbers tend to break for odd reasons like hardware defects and hardware upgrades, and as such are not reliable for Digital Rights Managment DRM

#6

What would you suggest that would be better for DRM?
Thanks
Dan

#7

I have an old Intel iMac (one of the 1st ones). It had the logic board replaced early on. It lost its Serial Number.* It now has “SystemSerialNumb” instead. It does not have a Hardware UUID, does not have the field. It is running 10.4.11.

So maybe Hardware UUID is a Leopard addition. I don’t know whether it can be lost. Likely someone does.

  • I read somewhere that if you ask, they will keep (restore) your Serial Number during these kinds of repairs. I never had any kind of problem with the machine or its (many) applications afterwards, so it seemed a moot point. Apparently applications use more intense methods. But it might matter for a homemade security method.
#8

Fenton:
does this also fail?

set UUID to do shell script "ioreg -rd1 -c IOPlatformExpertDevice | grep -i 'UUID' | cut -c27-62 | awk {'print tolower()'}"

(It’s not mine…)

#9

Yes, it also fails. There is no UUID. That machine was one of the 1st Intel iMacs. I ordered it just before they announced Intel chips in Macs, and they asked me if I wanted the new (never seen before) Intel verson.

So, after the logic board was replaced, it has that standard text as a “serial number” and was too early for a UUID. But registered software always worked on it, so I didn’t really care.