sysconf(3) BSD Library Functions Manual sysconf(3)
NAME
sysconf -- get configurable system variables
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
long
sysconf(int name);
DESCRIPTION
This interface is defined by IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (``POSIX.1''). A far
more complete interface is available using sysctl(3).
The sysconf() function provides a method for applications to determine
the current value of a configurable system limit or option variable. The
name argument specifies the system variable to be queried. Symbolic con-
stants for each name value are found in the include file <unistd.h>.
Shell programmers who need access to these parameters should use the
getconf(1) utility.
The available values are as follows:
_SC_ARG_MAX
The maximum bytes of argument to execve(2).
_SC_CHILD_MAX
The maximum number of simultaneous processes per user id.
_SC_CLK_TCK
The frequency of the statistics clock in ticks per second.
_SC_IOV_MAX
The maximum number of elements in the I/O vector used by
readv(2), writev(2), recvmsg(2), and sendmsg(2).
_SC_NGROUPS_MAX
The maximum number of supplemental groups.
_SC_NPROCESSORS_CONF
The number of processors configured.
_SC_NPROCESSORS_ONLN
The number of processors currently online.
_SC_OPEN_MAX
The maximum number of open files per user id.
_SC_PAGESIZE
The size of a system page in bytes.
_SC_STREAM_MAX
The minimum maximum number of streams that a process may have
open at any one time.
_SC_TZNAME_MAX
The minimum maximum number of types supported for the name of a
timezone.
_SC_JOB_CONTROL
Return 1 if job control is available on this system, otherwise
-1.
_SC_SAVED_IDS
Returns 1 if saved set-group and saved set-user ID is available,
otherwise -1.
_SC_VERSION
The version of IEEE Std 1003.1 (``POSIX.1'') with which the sys-
tem attempts to comply.
_SC_BC_BASE_MAX
The maximum ibase/obase values in the bc(1) utility.
_SC_BC_DIM_MAX
The maximum array size in the bc(1) utility.
_SC_BC_SCALE_MAX
The maximum scale value in the bc(1) utility.
_SC_BC_STRING_MAX
The maximum string length in the bc(1) utility.
_SC_COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX
The maximum number of weights that can be assigned to any entry
of the LC_COLLATE order keyword in the locale definition file.
_SC_EXPR_NEST_MAX
The maximum number of expressions that can be nested within
parenthesis by the expr(1) utility.
_SC_LINE_MAX
The maximum length in bytes of a text-processing utility's input
line.
_SC_RE_DUP_MAX
The maximum number of repeated occurrences of a regular expres-
sion permitted when using interval notation.
_SC_2_VERSION
The version of IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') with which the sys-
tem attempts to comply.
_SC_2_C_BIND
Return 1 if the system's C-language development facilities sup-
port the C-Language Bindings Option, otherwise -1.
_SC_2_C_DEV
Return 1 if the system supports the C-Language Development Utili-
ties Option, otherwise -1.
_SC_2_CHAR_TERM
Return 1 if the system supports at least one terminal type capa-
ble of all operations described in IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2''),
otherwise -1.
_SC_2_FORT_DEV
Return 1 if the system supports the FORTRAN Development Utilities
Option, otherwise -1.
_SC_2_FORT_RUN
Return 1 if the system supports the FORTRAN Runtime Utilities
Option, otherwise -1.
_SC_2_LOCALEDEF
Return 1 if the system supports the creation of locales, other-
wise -1.
_SC_2_SW_DEV
Return 1 if the system supports the Software Development Utili-
ties Option, otherwise -1.
_SC_2_UPE
Return 1 if the system supports the User Portability Utilities
Option, otherwise -1.
These values also exist, but may not be standard:
_SC_PHYS_PAGES
The number of pages of physical memory. Note that it is possible
that the product of this value and the value of _SC_PAGESIZE will
overflow a long in some configurations on a 32bit machine.
RETURN VALUES
If the call to sysconf() is not successful, -1 is returned and errno is
set appropriately. Otherwise, if the variable is associated with func-
tionality that is not supported, -1 is returned and errno is not modi-
fied. Otherwise, the current variable value is returned.
ERRORS
The sysconf() function may fail and set errno for any of the errors spec-
ified for the library function sysctl(3). In addition, the following
error may be reported:
[EINVAL] The value of the name argument is invalid.
SEE ALSO
getconf(1), pathconf(2), confstr(3), sysctl(3)
STANDARDS
Except for the fact that values returned by sysconf() may change over the
lifetime of the calling process, this function conforms to IEEE Std
1003.1-1988 (``POSIX.1'').
HISTORY
The sysconf() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.
BUGS
The value for _SC_STREAM_MAX is a minimum maximum, and required to be the
same as ANSI C's FOPEN_MAX, so the returned value is a ridiculously small
and misleading number.
BSD December 14, 2006 BSD
Mac OS X 10.8 - Generated Fri Aug 31 15:41:04 CDT 2012