xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/confstr.3 (revision 77a0943ded95b9e6438f7db70c4a28e4d93946d4)
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32.\"	@(#)confstr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 4, 1993
36.Dt CONFSTR 3
37.Os BSD 4
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm confstr
40.Nd get string-valued configurable variables
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include <unistd.h>
45.Ft size_t
46.Fn confstr "int name" "char *buf" "size_t len"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Bf -symbolic
49This interface is obsoleted by
50.Xr sysctl 3 .
51.Ef
52.Pp
53The
54.Fn confstr
55function provides a method for applications to get configuration
56defined string values.
57.Pp
58The
59.Fa name
60argument specifies the system variable to be queried.
61Symbolic constants for each name value are found in the include file
62.Li <unistd.h> .
63The
64.Fa len
65argument specifies the size of the buffer referenced by the
66argument
67.Fa buf .
68If
69.Fa len
70is non-zero,
71.Fa buf
72is a non-null pointer, and
73.Fa name
74has a value, up to
75.Fa len
76\- 1 bytes of the value are copied into the buffer
77.Fa buf .
78The copied value is always null terminated.
79.Pp
80The available values are as follows:
81.Pp
82.Bl -tag -width "123456"
83.Pp
84.It Li _CS_PATH
85Return a value for the
86.Ev PATH
87environment variable that finds all the standard utilities.
88.El
89.Sh RETURN VALUES
90If the call to
91.Fn confstr
92is not successful, \-1 is returned and
93.Va errno
94is set appropriately.
95Otherwise, if the variable does not have a configuration defined value,
960 is returned and
97.Va errno
98is not modified.
99Otherwise, the buffer size needed to hold the entire configuration-defined
100value is returned.
101If this size is greater than the argument
102.Fa len ,
103the string in
104.Fa buf
105was truncated.
106.Sh ERRORS
107The
108.Fn confstr
109function may fail and set
110.Va error
111for any of the errors specified for the library functions
112.Xr malloc 3
113and
114.Xr sysctl 3 .
115.Pp
116In addition, the following errors may be reported:
117.Bl -tag -width Er
118.It Bq Er EINVAL
119The value of the
120.Fa name
121argument is invalid.
122.Sh SEE ALSO
123.Xr sysctl 3
124.Sh HISTORY
125The
126.Fn confstr
127function first appeared in
128.Bx 4.4 .
129