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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_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_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_UPE
	     Return 1 if the system supports the User Portability Utilities
	     Option, otherwise -1.

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)

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.

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.

FreeBSD 5.4			 June 18, 2001			   FreeBSD 5.4

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