How to identify a Mac System uniquely

Question

I want to identify my mac system uniquely via code. I find the Hardware UUID in my About this Mac. So how to programmatically access the unique uuid from MAc OS X.

Kindl

Answer 1

From here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2754563/610351

void get_platform_uuid(char * buf, int bufSize) {
    io_registry_entry_t ioRegistryRoot = IORegistryEntryFromPath(kIOMasterPortDefault, "IOService:/");
    CFStringRef uuidCf = (CFStringRef) IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(ioRegistryRoot, CFSTR(kIOPlatformUUIDKey), kCFAllocatorDefault, 0);
    IOObjectRelease(ioRegistryRoot);
    CFStringGetCString(uuidCf, buf, bufSize, kCFStringEncodingMacRoman);
    CFRelease(uuidCf);    
}

You can replace the CFStringGetCString with a simple conversion to NSString*.

Answer 2

So, if you don't care about the new AppStore rules etc... here you go:

- (NSString *)getSystemUUID {
    io_service_t platformExpert = IOServiceGetMatchingService(kIOMasterPortDefault,IOServiceMatching("IOPlatformExpertDevice"));
    if (!platformExpert)
        return nil;

    CFTypeRef serialNumberAsCFString = IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(platformExpert,CFSTR(kIOPlatformUUIDKey),kCFAllocatorDefault, 0);
    IOObjectRelease(platformExpert);
    if (!serialNumberAsCFString)
        return nil;

    return (__bridge NSString *)(serialNumberAsCFString);;
}

Please Note:

• You need to add IOKit.framework to your project in order for this to work.
• This code is ARC compliant;
• This code is safe and it will return a nil NSString if something goes wrong;
• Apple does not guarantee that all future systems will have a software-readable serial number.
• Developers should not make any assumptions about the format of the serial number such as its length or what characters it may contain.