xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/gen/confstr.3 (revision 3816d47b2c42fcd6e549e3407f842a5b1a1d23ad)
1.\"	$NetBSD: confstr.3,v 1.19 2009/03/10 23:14:40 joerg Exp $
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30.\"	@(#)confstr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
31.\"
32.Dd December 2, 2006
33.Dt CONFSTR 3
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm confstr
37.Nd get string-valued configurable variables
38.Sh LIBRARY
39.Lb libc
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In unistd.h
42.Ft size_t
43.Fn confstr "int name" "char *buf" "size_t len"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Bf -symbolic
46This interface is obsoleted by
47.Xr sysctl 3 .
48.Ef
49.Pp
50The
51.Fn confstr
52function provides a method for applications to get configuration
53defined string values.
54.Pp
55The
56.Fa name
57argument specifies the system variable to be queried.
58Symbolic constants for each name value are found in the include file
59.Li \*[Lt]unistd.h\*[Gt] .
60The
61.Fa len
62argument specifies the size of the buffer referenced by the
63argument
64.Fa buf .
65If
66.Fa len
67is non-zero,
68.Fa buf
69is a non-null pointer, and
70.Fa name
71has a value, up to
72.Fa len
73\- 1 bytes of the value are copied into the buffer
74.Fa buf .
75The copied value is always null terminated.
76.Pp
77The available values are as follows:
78.Pp
79.Bl -tag -width "123456"
80.It Li _CS_PATH
81Return a value for the
82.Ev PATH
83environment variable that finds all the standard utilities.
84.El
85.Sh RETURN VALUES
86If the call to
87.Nm confstr
88is not successful, 0 is returned and
89.Va errno
90is set appropriately.
91Otherwise, if the variable does not have a configuration defined value,
920 is returned and
93.Va errno
94is not modified.
95Otherwise, the buffer size needed to hold the entire configuration-defined
96value is returned.
97If this size is greater than the argument
98.Fa len ,
99the string in
100.Fa buf
101was truncated.
102.Sh ERRORS
103The
104.Nm confstr
105function may fail and set
106.Va error
107for any of the errors specified for the library functions
108.Xr malloc 3
109and
110.Xr sysctl 3 .
111.Pp
112In addition, the following errors may be reported:
113.Bl -tag -width Er
114.It Bq Er EINVAL
115The value of the
116.Fa name
117argument is invalid.
118.El
119.Sh SEE ALSO
120.Xr sysctl 3
121.Sh STANDARDS
122The
123.Nm confstr
124function conforms to
125.St -p1003.2-92 .
126.Sh HISTORY
127The
128.Nm confstr
129function first appeared in
130.Bx 4.4 .
131.Sh BUGS
132The standards require us to return 0 both on errors, and when the value
133is not set.
134