<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>6.1.6 Miscellaneous System Information </title> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="6.1.6 Miscellaneous System Information "> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="lib"> <META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document"> <META NAME="distribution" CONTENT="global"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset="> <link rel="STYLESHEET" href="lib.css"> <link rel="first" href="lib.html"> <link rel="contents" href="contents.html" title="Contents"> <link rel="index" href="genindex.html" title="Index"> <LINK REL="previous" href="os-process.html"> <LINK REL="up" href="module-os.html"> <LINK REL="next" href="module-os.path.html"> </head> <body> <DIV CLASS="navigation"> <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td><A href="os-process.html"><img src="../icons/previous.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Previous Page" width="32"></A></td> <td><A href="module-os.html"><img src="../icons/up.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Up One Level" width="32"></A></td> <td><A href="module-os.path.html"><img src="../icons/next.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Next Page" width="32"></A></td> <td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td> <td><A href="contents.html"><img src="../icons/contents.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Contents" width="32"></A></td> <td><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src="../icons/modules.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Module Index" width="32"></a></td> <td><A href="genindex.html"><img src="../icons/index.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Index" width="32"></A></td> </tr></table> <b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" href="os-process.html">6.1.5 Process Management</A> <b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" href="module-os.html">6.1 os </A> <b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" href="module-os.path.html">6.2 os.path </A> <br><hr> </DIV> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <H2><A NAME="SECTION008160000000000000000"> </A> <BR> 6.1.6 Miscellaneous System Information </H2> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1252"><tt class="function">confstr</tt></a></b>(<var>name</var>) <dd> Return string-valued system configuration values. <var>name</var> specifies the configuration value to retrieve; it may be a string which is the name of a defined system value; these names are specified in a number of standards (POSIX, Unix95, Unix98, and others). Some platforms define additional names as well. The names known to the host operating system are given in the <code>confstr_names</code> dictionary. For configuration variables not included in that mapping, passing an integer for <var>name</var> is also accepted. Availability: Unix. <P> If the configuration value specified by <var>name</var> isn't defined, the empty string is returned. <P> If <var>name</var> is a string and is not known, <tt class="exception">ValueError</tt> is raised. If a specific value for <var>name</var> is not supported by the host system, even if it is included in <code>confstr_names</code>, an <tt class="exception">OSError</tt> is raised with <tt class="constant">errno.EINVAL</tt> for the error number. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1253"><tt>confstr_names</tt></a></b> <dd> Dictionary mapping names accepted by <tt class="function">confstr()</tt> to the integer values defined for those names by the host operating system. This can be used to determine the set of names known to the system. Availability: Unix. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1254"><tt class="function">sysconf</tt></a></b>(<var>name</var>) <dd> Return integer-valued system configuration values. If the configuration value specified by <var>name</var> isn't defined, <code>-1</code> is returned. The comments regarding the <var>name</var> parameter for <tt class="function">confstr()</tt> apply here as well; the dictionary that provides information on the known names is given by <code>sysconf_names</code>. Availability: Unix. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1255"><tt>sysconf_names</tt></a></b> <dd> Dictionary mapping names accepted by <tt class="function">sysconf()</tt> to the integer values defined for those names by the host operating system. This can be used to determine the set of names known to the system. Availability: Unix. </dl> <P> The follow data values are used to support path manipulation operations. These are defined for all platforms. <P> Higher-level operations on pathnames are defined in the <tt class="module"><a href="module-os.path.html">os.path</a></tt> module. <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1256"><tt>curdir</tt></a></b> <dd> The constant string used by the operating system to refer to the current directory. For example: <code>'.'</code> for POSIX or <code>':'</code> for the Macintosh. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1257"><tt>pardir</tt></a></b> <dd> The constant string used by the operating system to refer to the parent directory. For example: <code>'..'</code> for POSIX or <code>'::'</code> for the Macintosh. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1258"><tt>sep</tt></a></b> <dd> The character used by the operating system to separate pathname components, for example, "<tt class="character">/</tt>" for POSIX or "<tt class="character">:</tt>" for the Macintosh. Note that knowing this is not sufficient to be able to parse or concatenate pathnames -- use <tt class="function">os.path.split()</tt> and <tt class="function">os.path.join()</tt> -- but it is occasionally useful. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1259"><tt>altsep</tt></a></b> <dd> An alternative character used by the operating system to separate pathname components, or <code>None</code> if only one separator character exists. This is set to "<tt class="character">/</tt>" on DOS and Windows systems where <code>sep</code> is a backslash. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1260"><tt>pathsep</tt></a></b> <dd> The character conventionally used by the operating system to separate search patch components (as in <a class="envvar" name="l2h-1263">PATH</a>), such as "<tt class="character">:</tt>" for POSIX or "<tt class="character">;</tt>" for DOS and Windows. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1261"><tt>defpath</tt></a></b> <dd> The default search path used by <tt class="function">exec*p*()</tt> and <tt class="function">spawn*p*()</tt> if the environment doesn't have a <code>'PATH'</code> key. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1262"><tt>linesep</tt></a></b> <dd> The string used to separate (or, rather, terminate) lines on the current platform. This may be a single character, such as <code>'\ n'</code> for POSIX or <code>'\r'</code> for Mac OS, or multiple characters, for example, <code>'\r\n'</code> for DOS and Windows. </dl> <DIV CLASS="navigation"> <p><hr> <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td><A href="os-process.html"><img src="../icons/previous.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Previous Page" width="32"></A></td> <td><A href="module-os.html"><img src="../icons/up.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Up One Level" width="32"></A></td> <td><A href="module-os.path.html"><img src="../icons/next.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Next Page" width="32"></A></td> <td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td> <td><A href="contents.html"><img src="../icons/contents.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Contents" width="32"></A></td> <td><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src="../icons/modules.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Module Index" width="32"></a></td> <td><A href="genindex.html"><img src="../icons/index.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Index" width="32"></A></td> </tr></table> <b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" href="os-process.html">6.1.5 Process Management</A> <b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" href="module-os.html">6.1 os </A> <b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" href="module-os.path.html">6.2 os.path </A> <hr> <span class="release-info">Release 2.2, documentation updated on December 21, 2001.</span> </DIV> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <ADDRESS> See <i><a href="about.html">About this document...</a></i> for information on suggesting changes. </ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML>
