What is the cross-platform method of enumerating serial ports in Python (including virtual ports)?
Question: **Note:** I'm using Python 2.7, and pySerial for serial communications.

I found this article which lists two ways:
<http://www.zaber.com/wiki/Software/Python#Displaying_a_list_of_available_serial_ports>

This method works on Windows and Linux, but sometimes misses virtual ports on
Linux:

    
    
    import serial
    
    def scan():
       # scan for available ports. return a list of tuples (num, name)
       available = []
       for i in range(256):
           try:
               s = serial.Serial(i)
               available.append( (i, s.portstr))
               s.close()
           except serial.SerialException:
               pass
       return available
    
    print "Found ports:"
    for n,s in scan(): print "(%d) %s" % (n,s)
    

And this one that only works on Linux, but includes virtual ports:

    
    
    import serial, glob
    
    def scan():
       # scan for available ports. return a list of device names.
       return glob.glob('/dev/ttyS*') + glob.glob('/dev/ttyUSB*')
    
    print "Found ports:"
    for name in scan(): print name
    

I suppose I could do platform detection to use the second method (the one that
includes virtual ports) when running on Linux, and the first method when
running Windows, but what about Mac?

How should I enumerate serial ports (virtual too) regardless of platform?

**Edit**

I found a few pertinent questions:

  * [MacPython: programmatically finding all serial ports](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1659283/macpython-programmatically-finding-all-serial-ports)
  * [MacOS: what's the difference between /dev/tty.* and /dev/cu.*?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8632586/macos-whats-the-difference-between-dev-tty-and-dev-cu)
  * [How to find all serial devices (ttyS, ttyUSB, ..) on Linux without opening them?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2530096/how-to-find-all-serial-devices-ttys-ttyusb-on-linux-without-opening-them)


Answer: This is what I've been using. It's a mashup of the methods I posted above. I'd
still like to see better solutions, though.

    
    
    # A function that tries to list serial ports on most common platforms
    def list_serial_ports():
        system_name = platform.system()
        if system_name == "Windows":
            # Scan for available ports.
            available = []
            for i in range(256):
                try:
                    s = serial.Serial(i)
                    available.append(i)
                    s.close()
                except serial.SerialException:
                    pass
            return available
        elif system_name == "Darwin":
            # Mac
            return glob.glob('/dev/tty*') + glob.glob('/dev/cu*')
        else:
            # Assume Linux or something else
            return glob.glob('/dev/ttyS*') + glob.glob('/dev/ttyUSB*')
    

