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SYSCONF(3)		    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.	  Sym-
       bolic  constants	 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
	       One more	than the maximum value the system may assign to	a  new
	       file descriptor.

       _SC_PAGESIZE
	       The size	of a system page in bytes.

       _SC_PAGE_SIZE
	       Equivalent to _SC_PAGESIZE.

       _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	avail-
	       able, 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  in-
	       put 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
	       Utilities Option, otherwise -1.

       _SC_2_CHAR_TERM
	       Return  1 if the	system supports	at least one terminal type ca-
	       pable  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	Utili-
	       ties 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.

       _SC_AIO_LISTIO_MAX
	       Maximum number of I/O operations	in a single list I/O call sup-
	       ported.

       _SC_AIO_MAX
	       Maximum number of outstanding asynchronous I/O operations  sup-
	       ported.

       _SC_AIO_PRIO_DELTA_MAX
	       The  maximum  amount  by	which a	process	can decrease its asyn-
	       chronous	I/O priority level from	its own	scheduling priority.

       _SC_DELAYTIMER_MAX
	       Maximum number of timer expiration overruns.

       _SC_MQ_OPEN_MAX
	       The maximum number of open message queue	descriptors a  process
	       may hold.

       _SC_RTSIG_MAX
	       Maximum	number	of  realtime  signals reserved for application
	       use.

       _SC_SEM_NSEMS_MAX
	       Maximum number of semaphores that a process may have.

       _SC_SEM_VALUE_MAX
	       The maximum value a semaphore may have.

       _SC_SIGQUEUE_MAX
	       Maximum number of queued	signals	that a process	may  send  and
	       have pending at the receiver(s) at any time.

       _SC_TIMER_MAX
	       Maximum number of timers	per process supported.

       _SC_GETGR_R_SIZE_MAX
	       Suggested initial value for the size of the group entry buffer.

       _SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX
	       Suggested  initial  value  for  the  size of the	password entry
	       buffer.

       _SC_HOST_NAME_MAX
	       Maximum length of a host	name (not  including  the  terminating
	       null) as	returned from the gethostname()	function.

       _SC_LOGIN_NAME_MAX
	       Maximum length of a login name.

       _SC_THREAD_STACK_MIN
	       Minimum size in bytes of	thread stack storage.

       _SC_THREAD_THREADS_MAX
	       Maximum number of threads that can be created per process.

       _SC_TTY_NAME_MAX
	       Maximum length of terminal device name.

       _SC_SYMLOOP_MAX
	       Maximum number of symbolic links	that can be reliably traversed
	       in the resolution of a pathname in the absence of a loop.

       _SC_ATEXIT_MAX
	       Maximum	number	of  functions  that  may  be  registered  with
	       atexit().

       _SC_XOPEN_VERSION
	       An integer value	greater	than or	equal  to  4,  indicating  the
	       version	of  the	 X/Open	Portability Guide to which this	system
	       conforms.

       _SC_XOPEN_XCU_VERSION
	       An integer value	indicating the version of the  XCU  Specifica-
	       tion to which this system conforms.

       These values also exist,	but may	not be standard:

       _SC_CPUSET_SIZE
	       Size of the kernel cpuset.

       _SC_PHYS_PAGES
	       The number of pages of physical memory.	Note that it is	possi-
	       ble   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
       specified for the library function sysctl(3).  In addition, the follow-
       ing 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.

FreeBSD	13.2			April 26, 2013			    SYSCONF(3)

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | HISTORY | BUGS

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