1.\" 2.\" Copyright 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3.\" 4.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and 5.\" its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby 6.\" granted, provided that both the above copyright notice and this 7.\" permission notice appear in all copies, that both the above 8.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all 9.\" supporting documentation, and that the name of M.I.T. not be used 10.\" in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the 11.\" software without specific, written prior permission. M.I.T. makes 12.\" no representations about the suitability of this software for any 13.\" purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied 14.\" warranty. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY M.I.T. ``AS IS''. M.I.T. DISCLAIMS 17.\" ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, 18.\" INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 19.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT 20.\" SHALL M.I.T. BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, 21.\" SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT 22.\" LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF 23.\" USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND 24.\" ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, 25.\" OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT 26.\" OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 27.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 28.\" 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd April 25, 2000 32.Dt GETCONF 1 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm getconf 36.Nd retrieve standard configuration variables 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl v Ar environment 40.Ar path_var 41.Ar file 42.Pp 43.Nm 44.Op Fl v Ar environment 45.Ar system_var 46.Sh DESCRIPTION 47The 48.Nm 49utility prints the value of a 50.Tn POSIX 51or 52.Tn X/Open 53path or system configuration variable to the standard output. 54If the specified variable is undefined, the string 55.Dq Li undefined 56is output. 57.Pp 58The first form of the command, with two mandatory 59arguments, retrieves file- and filesystem-specific 60configuration variables using 61.Xr pathconf 2 . 62The second form, with a single argument, retrieves system 63configuration variables using 64.Xr confstr 3 65and 66.Xr sysconf 3 , 67depending on the type of variable. 68.Pp 69All variables use the same name as the manifest constants defined in 70the relevant standard C-language bindings, including any leading 71underscore or prefix. 72That is to say, 73.Ar system_var 74might be 75.Dv ARG_MAX 76or 77.Dv _POSIX_VERSION , 78as opposed to the 79.Xr sysconf 3 80names 81.Dv _SC_ARG_MAX 82or 83.Dv _SC_POSIX_VERSION . 84(There is one exception: there is no corresponding manifest constant 85to 86.Dv _CS_PATH , 87so a 88.Ar system_var 89of 90.Dq Li PATH 91is used.) 92.Pp 93The 94.Fl v Ar environment 95option is not supported, but provided for compatibility purposes. 96.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 97The 98.Nm 99utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred. 100Use of a 101.Ar system_var 102or 103.Ar path_var 104which is completely unknown to the system is considered an error, 105causing a diagnostic message to be written to standard error; one 106which is known but merely undefined does not result in an error 107indication. 108.Pp 109Use of the unsupported 110.Fl v Ar environment 111option will result in a diagnostic message indicating that it is not 112supported. 113.Sh EXAMPLES 114The command: 115.Bd -literal -offset indent 116getconf PATH 117.Ed 118.Pp 119will display the system default setting for the 120.Ev PATH 121environment variable. 122.Pp 123The command: 124.Bd -literal -offset indent 125getconf NAME_MAX /tmp 126.Ed 127.Pp 128will display the maximum length of a filename in the 129.Pa /tmp 130directory. 131.Sh SEE ALSO 132.Xr pathconf 2 , 133.Xr confstr 3 , 134.Xr sysconf 3 135.Sh STANDARDS 136The 137.Nm 138utility is expected to be compliant with 139.St -susv2 . 140.Sh HISTORY 141The 142.Nm 143command first appeared in 144.Fx 5.0 . 145.Sh AUTHORS 146.An Garrett A. Wollman Aq wollman@lcs.mit.edu 147