# OS
Stability: 2 - Stable
Provides a few basic operating-system related utility functions.
Use `require('os')` to access this module.
## os.EOL
A constant defining the appropriate End-of-line marker for the operating
system.
## os.arch()
Returns the operating system CPU architecture. Possible values are `'x64'`,
`'arm'` and `'ia32'`. Returns the value of [`process.arch`][].
## os.constants
Returns an object containing commonly used operating system specific constants
for error codes, process signals, and so on. The specific constants currently
defined are described in [OS Constants][].
## os.cpus()
Returns an array of objects containing information about each CPU/core
installed: model, speed (in MHz), and times (an object containing the number of
milliseconds the CPU/core spent in: user, nice, sys, idle, and irq).
Example inspection of os.cpus:
```js
[ { model: 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz',
speed: 2926,
times:
{ user: 252020,
nice: 0,
sys: 30340,
idle: 1070356870,
irq: 0 } },
{ model: 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz',
speed: 2926,
times:
{ user: 306960,
nice: 0,
sys: 26980,
idle: 1071569080,
irq: 0 } },
{ model: 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz',
speed: 2926,
times:
{ user: 248450,
nice: 0,
sys: 21750,
idle: 1070919370,
irq: 0 } },
{ model: 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz',
speed: 2926,
times:
{ user: 256880,
nice: 0,
sys: 19430,
idle: 1070905480,
irq: 20 } },
{ model: 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz',
speed: 2926,
times:
{ user: 511580,
nice: 20,
sys: 40900,
idle: 1070842510,
irq: 0 } },
{ model: 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz',
speed: 2926,
times:
{ user: 291660,
nice: 0,
sys: 34360,
idle: 1070888000,
irq: 10 } },
{ model: 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz',
speed: 2926,
times:
{ user: 308260,
nice: 0,
sys: 55410,
idle: 1071129970,
irq: 880 } },
{ model: 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz',
speed: 2926,
times:
{ user: 266450,
nice: 1480,
sys: 34920,
idle: 1072572010,
irq: 30 } } ]
```
Note that since `nice` values are UNIX centric in Windows the `nice` values of
all processors are always 0.
## os.endianness()
Returns the endianness of the CPU. Possible values are `'BE'` for big endian
or `'LE'` for little endian.
## os.freemem()
Returns the amount of free system memory in bytes.
## os.homedir()
Returns the home directory of the current user.
## os.hostname()
Returns the hostname of the operating system.
## os.loadavg()
Returns an array containing the 1, 5, and 15 minute load averages.
The load average is a measure of system activity, calculated by the operating
system and expressed as a fractional number. As a rule of thumb, the load
average should ideally be less than the number of logical CPUs in the system.
The load average is a very UNIX-y concept; there is no real equivalent on
Windows platforms. That is why this function always returns `[0, 0, 0]` on
Windows.
## os.networkInterfaces()
Get a list of network interfaces:
```js
{ lo:
[ { address: '127.0.0.1',
netmask: '255.0.0.0',
family: 'IPv4',
mac: '00:00:00:00:00:00',
internal: true },
{ address: '::1',
netmask: 'ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff',
family: 'IPv6',
mac: '00:00:00:00:00:00',
internal: true } ],
eth0:
[ { address: '192.168.1.108',
netmask: '255.255.255.0',
family: 'IPv4',
mac: '01:02:03:0a:0b:0c',
internal: false },
{ address: 'fe80::a00:27ff:fe4e:66a1',
netmask: 'ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::',
family: 'IPv6',
mac: '01:02:03:0a:0b:0c',
internal: false } ] }
```
Note that due to the underlying implementation this will only return network
interfaces that have been assigned an address.
## os.platform()
Returns the operating system platform. Possible values are `'darwin'`,
`'freebsd'`, `'linux'`, `'sunos'` or `'win32'`. Returns the value of
[`process.platform`][].
## os.release()
Returns the operating system release.
## os.tmpdir()
Returns the operating system's default directory for temporary files.
## os.totalmem()
Returns the total amount of system memory in bytes.
## os.type()
Returns the operating system name. For example `'Linux'` on Linux, `'Darwin'`
on OS X and `'Windows_NT'` on Windows.
## os.uptime()
Returns the system uptime in seconds.
## os.userInfo([options])
* `options` {Object}
* `encoding` {String} Character encoding used to interpret resulting strings.
If `encoding` is set to `'buffer'`, the `username`, `shell`, and `homedir`
values will be `Buffer` instances. (Default: 'utf8')
Returns a subset of the password file entry for the current effective user. The
returned object includes the `username`, `uid`, `gid`, `shell`, and `homedir`.
On Windows, the `uid` and `gid` fields are `-1`, and `shell` is `null`.
The value of `homedir` returned by `userInfo()` comes directly from the
operating system. This differs from the result of `os.homedir()`, which queries
several environment variables for the home directory before falling back to the
operating system response.
## OS Constants
The following constants are exported by `os.constants`. **Note:** Not all
constants will be available on every operating system.
### Signal Constants
The following signal constants are exported by `os.constants.signals`:
Constant |
Description |
SIGHUP |
Sent to indicate when a controlling terminal is closed or a parent
process exits. |
SIGINT |
Sent to indicate when a user wishes to interrupt a process
(`(Ctrl+C)`). |
SIGQUIT |
Sent to indicate when a user wishes to terminate a process and perform a
core dump. |
SIGILL |
Sent to a process to notify that it has attempted to perform an illegal,
malformed, unknown or privileged instruction. |
SIGTRAP |
Sent to a proces when an exception has occurred. |
SIGABRT |
Sent to a process to request that it abort. |
SIGIOT |
Synonym for SIGABRT |
SIGBUS |
Sent to a process to notify that it has caused a bus error. |
SIGFPE |
Sent to a process to notify that it has performed an illegal arithmetic
operation. |
SIGKILL |
Sent to a process to terminate it immediately. |
SIGUSR1 SIGUSR2 |
Sent to a process to identify user-defined conditions. |
SIGSEGV |
Sent to a process to notify of a segmentation fault. |
SIGPIPE |
Sent to a process when it has attempted to write to a disconnected
pipe. |
SIGALRM |
Sent to a process when a system timer elapses. |
SIGTERM |
Sent to a process to request termination. |
SIGCHLD |
Sent to a process when a child process terminates. |
SIGSTKFLT |
Sent to a process to indicate a stack fault on a coprocessor. |
SIGCONT |
Sent to instruct the operating system to continue a paused process. |
SIGSTOP |
Sent to instruct the operating system to halt a process. |
SIGTSTP |
Sent to a process to request it to stop. |
SIGBREAK |
Sent to indicate when a user wishes to interrupt a process. |
SIGTTIN |
Sent to a process when it reads from the TTY while in the
background. |
SIGTTOU |
Sent to a process when it writes to the TTY while in the
background. |
SIGURG |
Sent to a process when a socket has urgent data to read. |
SIGXCPU |
Sent to a process when it has exceeded its limit on CPU usage. |
SIGXFSZ |
Sent to a process when it grows a file larger than the maximum
allowed. |
SIGVTALRM |
Sent to a process when a virtual timer has elapsed. |
SIGPROF |
Sent to a process when a system timer has elapsed. |
SIGWINCH |
Sent to a process when the controlling terminal has changed its
size. |
SIGIO |
Sent to a process when I/O is available. |
SIGPOLL |
Synonym for SIGIO |
SIGLOST |
Sent to a process when a file lock has been lost. |
SIGPWR |
Sent to a process to notify of a power failure. |
SIGINFO |
Synonym for SIGPWR |
SIGSYS |
Sent to a process to notify of a bad argument. |
SIGUNUSED |
Synonym for SIGSYS |
### Error Constants
The following error constants are exported by `os.constants.errno`:
#### POSIX Error Constants
Constant |
Description |
E2BIG |
Indicates that the list of arguments is longer than expected. |
EACCES |
Indicates that the operation did not have sufficient permissions. |
EADDRINUSE |
Indicates that the network address is already in use. |
EADDRNOTAVAIL |
Indicates that the network address is currently unavailable for
use. |
EAFNOSUPPORT |
Indicates that the network address family is not supported. |
EAGAIN |
Indicates that there is currently no data available and to try the
operation again later. |
EALREADY |
Indicates that the socket already has a pending connection in
progress. |
EBADF |
Indicates that a file descriptor is not valid. |
EBADMSG |
Indicates an invalid data message. |
EBUSY |
Indicates that a device or resource is busy. |
ECANCELED |
Indicates that an operation was canceled. |
ECHILD |
Indicates that there are no child processes. |
ECONNABORTED |
Indicates that the network connection has been aborted. |
ECONNREFUSED |
Indicates that the network connection has been refused. |
ECONNRESET |
Indicates that the network connection has been reset. |
EDEADLK |
Indicates that a resource deadlock has been avoided. |
EDESTADDRREQ |
Indicates that a destination address is required. |
EDOM |
Indicates that an argument is out of the domain of the function. |
EDQUOT |
Indicates that the disk quota has been exceeded. |
EEXIST |
Indicates that the file already exists. |
EFAULT |
Indicates an invalid pointer address. |
EFBIG |
Indicates that the file is too large. |
EHOSTUNREACH |
Indicates that the host is unreachable. |
EIDRM |
Indicates that the identifier has been removed. |
EILSEQ |
Indicates an illegal byte sequence. |
EINPROGRESS |
Indicates that an operation is already in progress. |
EINTR |
Indicates that a function call was interrupted. |
EINVAL |
Indicates that an invalid argument was provided. |
EIO |
Indicates an otherwise unspecified I/O error. |
EISCONN |
Indicates that the socket is connected. |
EISDIR |
Indicates that the path is a directory. |
ELOOP |
Indicates too many levels of symbolic links in a path. |
EMFILE |
Indicates that there are too many open files. |
EMLINK |
Indicates that there are too many hard links to a file. |
EMSGSIZE |
Indicates that the provided message is too long. |
EMULTIHOP |
Indicates that a multihop was attempted. |
ENAMETOOLONG |
Indicates that the filename is too long. |
ENETDOWN |
Indicates that the network is down. |
ENETRESET |
Indicates that the connection has been aborted by the network. |
ENETUNREACH |
Indicates that the network is unreachable. |
ENFILE |
Indicates too many open files in the system. |
ENOBUFS |
Indicates that no buffer space is available. |
ENODATA |
Indicates that no message is available on the stream head read
queue. |
ENODEV |
Indicates that there is no such device. |
ENOENT |
Indicates that there is no such file or directory. |
ENOEXEC |
Indicates an exec format error. |
ENOLCK |
Indicates that there are no locks available. |
ENOLINK |
Indications that a link has been severed. |
ENOMEM |
Indicates that there is not enough space. |
ENOMSG |
Indicates that there is no message of the desired type. |
ENOPROTOOPT |
Indicates that a given protocol is not available. |
ENOSPC |
Indicates that there is no space available on the device. |
ENOSR |
Indicates that there are no stream resources available. |
ENOSTR |
Indicates that a given resource is not a stream. |
ENOSYS |
Indicates that a function has not been implemented. |
ENOTCONN |
Indicates that the socket is not connected. |
ENOTDIR |
Indicates that the path is not a directory. |
ENOTEMPTY |
Indicates that the directory is not empty. |
ENOTSOCK |
Indicates that the given item is not a socket. |
ENOTSUP |
Indicates that a given operation is not supported. |
ENOTTY |
Indicates an inappropriate I/O control operation. |
ENXIO |
Indicates no such device or address. |
EOPNOTSUPP |
Indicates that an operation is not supported on the socket.
Note that while `ENOTSUP` and `EOPNOTSUPP` have the same value on Linux,
according to POSIX.1 these error values should be distinct.) |
EOVERFLOW |
Indicates that a value is too large to be stored in a given data
type. |
EPERM |
Indicates that the operation is not permitted. |
EPIPE |
Indicates a broken pipe. |
EPROTO |
Indicates a protocol error. |
EPROTONOSUPPORT |
Indicates that a protocol is not supported. |
EPROTOTYPE |
Indicates the wrong type of protocol for a socket. |
ERANGE |
Indicates that the results are too large. |
EROFS |
Indicates that the file system is read only. |
ESPIPE |
Indicates an invalid seek operation. |
ESRCH |
Indicates that there is no such process. |
ESTALE |
Indicates that the file handle is stale. |
ETIME |
Indicates an expired timer. |
ETIMEDOUT |
Indicates that the connection timed out. |
ETXTBSY |
Indicates that a text file is busy. |
EWOULDBLOCK |
Indicates that the operation would block. |
EXDEV |
Indicates an improper link.
|
#### Windows Specific Error Constants
The following error codes are specific to the Windows operating system:
Constant |
Description |
WSAEINTR |
Indicates an interrupted function call. |
WSAEBADF |
Indicates an invalid file handle. |
WSAEACCES |
Indicates insufficient permissions to complete the operation. |
WSAEFAULT |
Indicates an invalid pointer address. |
WSAEINVAL |
Indicates that an invalid argument was passed. |
WSAEMFILE |
Indicates that there are too many open files. |
WSAEWOULDBLOCK |
Indicates that a resource is temporarily unavailable. |
WSAEINPROGRESS |
Indicates that an operation is currently in progress. |
WSAEALREADY |
Indicates that an operation is already in progress. |
WSAENOTSOCK |
Indicates that the resource is not a socket. |
WSAEDESTADDRREQ |
Indicates that a destination address is required. |
WSAEMSGSIZE |
Indicates that the message size is too long. |
WSAEPROTOTYPE |
Indicates the wrong protocol type for the socket. |
WSAENOPROTOOPT |
Indicates a bad protocol option. |
WSAEPROTONOSUPPORT |
Indicates that the protocol is not supported. |
WSAESOCKTNOSUPPORT |
Indicates that the socket type is not supported. |
WSAEOPNOTSUPP |
Indicates that the operation is not supported. |
WSAEPFNOSUPPORT |
Indicates that the protocol family is not supported. |
WSAEAFNOSUPPORT |
Indicates that the address family is not supported. |
WSAEADDRINUSE |
Indicates that the network address is already in use. |
WSAEADDRNOTAVAIL |
Indicates that the network address is not available. |
WSAENETDOWN |
Indicates that the network is down. |
WSAENETUNREACH |
Indicates that the network is unreachable. |
WSAENETRESET |
Indicates that the network connection has been reset. |
WSAECONNABORTED |
Indicates that the connection has been aborted. |
WSAECONNRESET |
Indicates that the connection has been reset by the peer. |
WSAENOBUFS |
Indicates that there is no buffer space available. |
WSAEISCONN |
Indicates that the socket is already connected. |
WSAENOTCONN |
Indicates that the socket is not connected. |
WSAESHUTDOWN |
Indicates that data cannot be sent after the socket has been
shutdown. |
WSAETOOMANYREFS |
Indicates that there are too many references. |
WSAETIMEDOUT |
Indicates that the connection has timed out. |
WSAECONNREFUSED |
Indicates that the connection has been refused. |
WSAELOOP |
Indicates that a name cannot be translated. |
WSAENAMETOOLONG |
Indicates that a name was too long. |
WSAEHOSTDOWN |
Indicates that a network host is down. |
WSAEHOSTUNREACH |
Indicates that there is no route to a network host. |
WSAENOTEMPTY |
Indicates that the directory is not empty. |
WSAEPROCLIM |
Indicates that there are too many processes. |
WSAEUSERS |
Indicates that the user quota has been exceeded. |
WSAEDQUOT |
Indicates that the disk quota has been exceeded. |
WSAESTALE |
Indicates a stale file handle reference. |
WSAEREMOTE |
Indicates that the item is remote. |
WSASYSNOTREADY |
Indicates that the network subsystem is not ready. |
WSAVERNOTSUPPORTED |
Indicates that the winsock.dll version is out of range. |
WSANOTINITIALISED |
Indicates that successful WSAStartup has not yet been performed. |
WSAEDISCON |
Indicates that a graceful shutdown is in progress. |
WSAENOMORE |
Indicates that there are no more results. |
WSAECANCELLED |
Indicates that an operation has been canceled. |
WSAEINVALIDPROCTABLE |
Indicates that the procedure call table is invalid. |
WSAEINVALIDPROVIDER |
Indicates an invalid service provider. |
WSAEPROVIDERFAILEDINIT |
Indicates that the service provider failed to initialized. |
WSASYSCALLFAILURE |
Indicates a system call failure. |
WSASERVICE_NOT_FOUND |
Indicates that a service was not found. |
WSATYPE_NOT_FOUND |
Indicates that a class type was not found. |
WSA_E_NO_MORE |
Indicates that there are no more results. |
WSA_E_CANCELLED |
Indicates that the call was canceled. |
WSAEREFUSED |
Indicates that a database query was refused. |
### libuv Constants
Constant |
Description |
UV_UDP_REUSEADDR |
|
[`process.arch`]: process.html#process_process_arch
[`process.platform`]: process.html#process_process_platform
[OS Constants]: #os_os_constants