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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
getconf — get configuration values
SYNOPSIS
getconf [−v specification] system_var
getconf [−v specification] path_var pathname
DESCRIPTION
In the first synopsis form, the getconf utility shall write to the standard output the value of the
variable specified by the system_var operand.
In the second synopsis form, the getconf utility shall write to the standard output the value of the
variable specified by the path_var operand for the path specified by the pathname operand.
The value of each configuration variable shall be determined as if it were obtained by calling the
function from which it is defined to be available by this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 or by the System
Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008 (see the OPERANDS section). The value shall reflect conditions in the
current operating environment.
OPTIONS
The getconf utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines.
The following option shall be supported:
−v specification
Indicate a specific specification and version for which configuration variables shall be
determined. If this option is not specified, the values returned correspond to an
implementation default conforming compilation environment.
If the command:
getconf _POSIX_V7_ILP32_OFF32
does not write "−1\n" or "undefined\n" to standard output, then commands of the form:
getconf −v POSIX_V7_ILP32_OFF32 ...
determine values for configuration variables corresponding to the POSIX_V7_ILP32_OFF32
compilation environment specified in c99, the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION.
If the command:
getconf _POSIX_V7_ILP32_OFFBIG
does not write "−1\n" or "undefined\n" to standard output, then commands of the form:
getconf −v POSIX_V7_ILP32_OFFBIG ...
determine values for configuration variables corresponding to the POSIX_V7_ILP32_OFFBIG
compilation environment specified in c99, the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION.
If the command:
getconf _POSIX_V7_LP64_OFF64
does not write "−1\n" or "undefined\n" to standard output, then commands of the form:
getconf −v POSIX_V7_LP64_OFF64 ...
determine values for configuration variables corresponding to the POSIX_V7_LP64_OFF64
compilation environment specified in c99, the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION.
If the command:
getconf _POSIX_V7_LPBIG_OFFBIG
does not write "−1\n" or "undefined\n" to standard output, then commands of the form:
getconf −v POSIX_V7_LPBIG_OFFBIG ...
determine values for configuration variables corresponding to the POSIX_V7_LPBIG_OFFBIG
compilation environment specified in c99, the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION.
OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:
path_var A name of a configuration variable. All of the variables in the Variable column of the table in
the DESCRIPTION of the fpathconf() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, without the enclosing braces, shall be supported. The implementation may add
other local variables.
pathname A pathname for which the variable specified by path_var is to be determined.
system_var
A name of a configuration variable. All of the following variables shall be supported:
* The names in the Variable column of the table in the DESCRIPTION of the sysconf() function
in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, except for the entries corresponding to
_SC_CLK_TCK, _SC_GETGR_R_SIZE_MAX, and _SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX, without the enclosing braces.
For compatibility with earlier versions, the following variable names shall also be
supported: POSIX2_C_BIND POSIX2_C_DEV POSIX2_CHAR_TERM POSIX2_FORT_DEV POSIX2_FORT_RUN
POSIX2_LOCALEDEF POSIX2_SW_DEV POSIX2_UPE POSIX2_VERSION
and shall be equivalent to the same name prefixed with an <underscore>. This requirement
may be removed in a future version.
* The names of the symbolic constants used as the name argument of the confstr() function in
the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, without the _CS_ prefix.
* The names of the symbolic constants listed under the headings ``Maximum Values'' and
``Minimum Values'' in the description of the <limits.h> header in the Base Definitions
volume of POSIX.1‐2008, without the enclosing braces.
For compatibility with earlier versions, the following variable names shall also be
supported: POSIX2_BC_BASE_MAX POSIX2_BC_DIM_MAX POSIX2_BC_SCALE_MAX POSIX2_BC_STRING_MAX
POSIX2_COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX POSIX2_EXPR_NEST_MAX POSIX2_LINE_MAX POSIX2_RE_DUP_MAX
and shall be equivalent to the same name prefixed with an <underscore>. This requirement
may be removed in a future version.
The implementation may add other local values.
STDIN
Not used.
INPUT FILES
None.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of getconf:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the
Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the
precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale
categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization
variables.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters
(for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
If the specified variable is defined on the system and its value is described to be available from the
confstr() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, its value shall be written in
the following format:
"%s\n", <value>
Otherwise, if the specified variable is defined on the system, its value shall be written in the
following format:
"%d\n", <value>
If the specified variable is valid, but is undefined on the system, getconf shall write using the
following format:
"undefined\n"
If the variable name is invalid or an error occurs, nothing shall be written to standard output.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 The specified variable is valid and information about its current state was written successfully.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
EXAMPLES
The following example illustrates the value of {NGROUPS_MAX}:
getconf NGROUPS_MAX
The following example illustrates the value of {NAME_MAX} for a specific directory:
getconf NAME_MAX /usr
The following example shows how to deal more carefully with results that might be unspecified:
if value=$(getconf PATH_MAX /usr); then
if [ "$value" = "undefined" ]; then
echo PATH_MAX in /usr is indeterminate.
else
echo PATH_MAX in /usr is $value.
fi
else
echo Error in getconf.
fi
RATIONALE
The original need for this utility, and for the confstr() function, was to provide a way of finding the
configuration-defined default value for the PATH environment variable. Since PATH can be modified by the
user to include directories that could contain utilities replacing the standard utilities, shell scripts
need a way to determine the system-supplied PATH environment variable value that contains the correct
search path for the standard utilities. It was later suggested that access to the other variables
described in this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 could also be useful to applications.
This functionality of getconf would not be adequately subsumed by another command such as:
grep var /etc/conf
because such a strategy would provide correct values for neither those variables that can vary at
runtime, nor those that can vary depending on the path.
Early proposal versions of getconf specified exit status 1 when the specified variable was valid, but not
defined on the system. The output string "undefined" is now used to specify this case with exit code 0
because so many things depend on an exit code of zero when an invoked utility is successful.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
c99
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines, <limits.h>
The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, confstr(), fpathconf(), sysconf(), system()
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .