xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/gen/confstr.3 (revision 63ab6604)
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32.\"	@(#)confstr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/gen/confstr.3,v 1.5.2.5 2001/12/14 18:33:50 ru Exp $
34.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/gen/confstr.3,v 1.6 2008/05/02 02:05:03 swildner Exp $
35.\"
36.Dd December 6, 2006
37.Dt CONFSTR 3
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm confstr
41.Nd get string-valued configurable variables
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In unistd.h
46.Ft size_t
47.Fn confstr "int name" "char *buf" "size_t len"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49.Bf -symbolic
50This interface is obsoleted by
51.Xr sysctl 3 .
52.Ef
53.Pp
54The
55.Fn confstr
56function provides a method for applications to get configuration
57defined string values.
58.Pp
59The
60.Fa name
61argument specifies the system variable to be queried.
62Symbolic constants for each name value are found in the include file
63.In unistd.h .
64The
65.Fa len
66argument specifies the size of the buffer referenced by the
67argument
68.Fa buf .
69If
70.Fa len
71is non-zero,
72.Fa buf
73is a non-null pointer, and
74.Fa name
75has a value, up to
76.Fa len
77\- 1 bytes of the value are copied into the buffer
78.Fa buf .
79The copied value is always null terminated.
80.Pp
81The available values are as follows:
82.Bl -tag -width 6n
83.It Li _CS_PATH
84Return a value for the
85.Ev PATH
86environment variable that finds all the standard utilities.
87.El
88.Sh RETURN VALUES
89If the call to
90.Fn confstr
91is not successful, 0 is returned and
92.Va errno
93is set appropriately.
94Otherwise, if the variable does not have a configuration defined value,
950 is returned and
96.Va errno
97is not modified.
98Otherwise, the buffer size needed to hold the entire configuration-defined
99value is returned.
100If this size is greater than the argument
101.Fa len ,
102the string in
103.Fa buf
104was truncated.
105.Sh ERRORS
106The
107.Fn confstr
108function may fail and set
109.Va errno
110for any of the errors specified for the library functions
111.Xr malloc 3
112and
113.Xr sysctl 3 .
114.Pp
115In addition, the following errors may be reported:
116.Bl -tag -width Er
117.It Bq Er EINVAL
118The value of the
119.Fa name
120argument is invalid.
121.El
122.Sh SEE ALSO
123.Xr sysctl 3
124.Sh STANDARDS
125The
126.Fn confstr
127function conforms to
128.St -susv3 .
129.Sh HISTORY
130The
131.Fn confstr
132function first appeared in
133.Bx 4.4 .
134