xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/sysconf.3 (revision 1b6c76a2fe091c74f08427e6c870851025a9cf67)
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32.\"	@(#)sysconf.3	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 18, 2001
36.Dt SYSCONF 3
37.Os BSD 4
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm sysconf
40.Nd get configurable system variables
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include <unistd.h>
45.Ft long
46.Fn sysconf "int name"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Pp
49This interface is defined by
50.St -p1003.1-88 .
51A far more complete interface is available using
52.Xr sysctl 3 .
53.Pp
54The
55.Fn sysconf
56function provides a method for applications to determine the current
57value of a configurable system limit or option variable.
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.Aq Pa unistd.h .
63Shell programmers who need access to these parameters should use the
64.Xr getconf 1
65utility.
66.Pp
67The available values are as follows:
68.Pp
69.Bl -tag -width 6n
70.Pp
71.It Li _SC_ARG_MAX
72The maximum bytes of argument to
73.Xr execve 2 .
74.It Li _SC_CHILD_MAX
75The maximum number of simultaneous processes per user id.
76.It Li _SC_CLK_TCK
77The frequency of the statistics clock in ticks per second.
78.It Li _SC_IOV_MAX
79The maximum number of elements in the I/O vector used by
80.Xr readv 2 ,
81.Xr writev 2 ,
82.Xr recvmsg 2 ,
83and
84.Xr sendmsg 2 .
85.It Li _SC_NGROUPS_MAX
86The maximum number of supplemental groups.
87.It Li _SC_OPEN_MAX
88The maximum number of open files per user id.
89.It Li _SC_STREAM_MAX
90The minimum maximum number of streams that a process may have open
91at any one time.
92.It Li _SC_TZNAME_MAX
93The minimum maximum number of types supported for the name of a
94timezone.
95.It Li _SC_JOB_CONTROL
96Return 1 if job control is available on this system, otherwise \-1.
97.It Li _SC_SAVED_IDS
98Returns 1 if saved set-group and saved set-user ID is available,
99otherwise \-1.
100.It Li _SC_VERSION
101The version of
102.St -p1003.1
103with which the system
104attempts to comply.
105.It Li _SC_BC_BASE_MAX
106The maximum ibase/obase values in the
107.Xr bc 1
108utility.
109.It Li _SC_BC_DIM_MAX
110The maximum array size in the
111.Xr bc 1
112utility.
113.It Li _SC_BC_SCALE_MAX
114The maximum scale value in the
115.Xr bc 1
116utility.
117.It Li _SC_BC_STRING_MAX
118The maximum string length in the
119.Xr bc 1
120utility.
121.It Li _SC_COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX
122The maximum number of weights that can be assigned to any entry of
123the LC_COLLATE order keyword in the locale definition file.
124.It Li _SC_EXPR_NEST_MAX
125The maximum number of expressions that can be nested within
126parenthesis by the
127.Xr expr 1
128utility.
129.It Li _SC_LINE_MAX
130The maximum length in bytes of a text-processing utility's input
131line.
132.It Li _SC_RE_DUP_MAX
133The maximum number of repeated occurrences of a regular expression
134permitted when using interval notation.
135.It Li _SC_2_VERSION
136The version of
137.St -p1003.2
138with which the system attempts to comply.
139.It Li _SC_2_C_BIND
140Return 1 if the system's C-language development facilities support the
141C-Language Bindings Option, otherwise \-1.
142.It Li _SC_2_C_DEV
143Return 1 if the system supports the C-Language Development Utilities Option,
144otherwise \-1.
145.It Li _SC_2_CHAR_TERM
146Return 1 if the system supports at least one terminal type capable of
147all operations described in
148.St -p1003.2 ,
149otherwise \-1.
150.It Li _SC_2_FORT_DEV
151Return 1 if the system supports the FORTRAN Development Utilities Option,
152otherwise \-1.
153.It Li _SC_2_FORT_RUN
154Return 1 if the system supports the FORTRAN Runtime Utilities Option,
155otherwise \-1.
156.It Li _SC_2_LOCALEDEF
157Return 1 if the system supports the creation of locales, otherwise \-1.
158.It Li _SC_2_SW_DEV
159Return 1 if the system supports the Software Development Utilities Option,
160otherwise \-1.
161.It Li _SC_2_UPE
162Return 1 if the system supports the User Portability Utilities Option,
163otherwise \-1.
164.El
165.Sh RETURN VALUES
166If the call to
167.Fn sysconf
168is not successful, \-1 is returned and
169.Va errno
170is set appropriately.
171Otherwise, if the variable is associated with functionality that is not
172supported, \-1 is returned and
173.Va errno
174is not modified.
175Otherwise, the current variable value is returned.
176.Sh ERRORS
177The
178.Fn sysconf
179function may fail and set
180.Va errno
181for any of the errors specified for the library function
182.Xr sysctl 3 .
183In addition, the following error may be reported:
184.Bl -tag -width Er
185.It Bq Er EINVAL
186The value of the
187.Fa name
188argument is invalid.
189.El
190.Sh SEE ALSO
191.Xr getconf 1 ,
192.Xr pathconf 2 ,
193.Xr confstr 3 ,
194.Xr sysctl 3
195.Sh BUGS
196The value for _SC_STREAM_MAX is a minimum maximum, and required to be
197the same as ANSI C's FOPEN_MAX, so the returned value is a ridiculously
198small and misleading number.
199.Sh STANDARDS
200Except for the fact that values returned by
201.Fn sysconf
202may change over the lifetime of the calling process,
203this function conforms to
204.St -p1003.1-88 .
205.Sh HISTORY
206The
207.Fn sysconf
208function first appeared in
209.Bx 4.4 .
210