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(python2.1-lib.info)Miscellaneous System Information

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Miscellaneous System Information
--------------------------------

`confstr(name)'
     Return string-valued system configuration values.  NAME 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 `confstr_names' dictionary.
     For configuration variables not included in that mapping, passing
     an integer for NAME is also accepted.  Availability: UNIX.

     If the configuration value specified by NAME isn't defined, the
     empty string is returned.

     If NAME is a string and is not known, `ValueError' is raised.  If
     a specific value for NAME is not supported by the host system,
     even if it is included in `confstr_names', an `OSError' is raised
     with `errno.EINVAL' for the error number.

`confstr_names'
     Dictionary mapping names accepted by `confstr()' 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.

`sysconf(name)'
     Return integer-valued system configuration values.  If the
     configuration value specified by NAME isn't defined, `-1' is
     returned.  The comments regarding the NAME parameter for
     `confstr()' apply here as well; the dictionary that provides
     information on the known names is given by `sysconf_names'.
     Availability: UNIX.

`sysconf_names'
     Dictionary mapping names accepted by `sysconf()' 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.

The follow data values are used to support path manipulation
operations.  These are defined for all platforms.

Higher-level operations on pathnames are defined in the `os.path'
module.

`curdir'
     The constant string used by the OS to refer to the current
     directory, e.g. `'.'' for POSIX or `':'' for the Macintosh.

`pardir'
     The constant string used by the OS to refer to the parent
     directory, e.g. `'..'' for POSIX or `'::'' for the Macintosh.

`sep'
     The character used by the OS to separate pathname components, e.g.
     `/' for POSIX or `:' for the Macintosh.  Note that knowing this is
     not sufficient to be able to parse or concatenate pathnames -- use
     `os.path.split()' and `os.path.join()' -- but it is occasionally
     useful.

`altsep'
     An alternative character used by the OS to separate pathname
     components, or `None' if only one separator character exists.
     This is set to `/' on DOS and Windows systems where `sep' is a
     backslash.

`pathsep'
     The character conventionally used by the OS to separate search
     patch components (as in `PATH'), e.g. `:' for POSIX or `;' for DOS
     and Windows.

`defpath'
     The default search path used by `exec*p*()' if the environment
     doesn't have a `'PATH'' key.

`linesep'
     The string used to separate (or, rather, terminate) lines on the
     current platform.  This may be a single character, e.g. `'\n'' for
     POSIX or `'\r'' for MacOS, or multiple characters, e.g. `'\r\n''
     for MS-DOS and MS Windows.