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<pre>
<span class="headline">CONFSTR(3)                Linux Programmer's Manual               CONFSTR(3)</span>
</pre>
<h2><a id="NAME" href="confstr.3.html#NAME"></a>NAME  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       confstr - get configuration dependent string variables
</pre>
<h2><a id="SYNOPSIS" href="confstr.3.html#SYNOPSIS"></a>SYNOPSIS  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       <b>#include &lt;unistd.h&gt;</b>

       <b>size_t confstr(int </b><i>name</i><b>, char *</b><i>buf</i><b>, size_t </b><i>len</i><b>);</b>

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see <a href="../man7/feature_test_macros.7.html">feature_test_macros(7)</a>):

       <b>confstr</b>(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE &gt;= 2 || _XOPEN_SOURCE
</pre>
<h2><a id="DESCRIPTION" href="confstr.3.html#DESCRIPTION"></a>DESCRIPTION  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       <b>confstr</b>() gets the value of configuration-dependent string variables.

       The <i>name</i> argument is the system variable to be queried.  The
       following variables are supported:

       <b>_CS_GNU_LIBC_VERSION </b>(GNU C library only; since glibc 2.3.2)
              A string which identifies the GNU C library version on this
              system (e.g., "glibc 2.3.4").

       <b>_CS_GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION </b>(GNU C library only; since glibc 2.3.2)
              A string which identifies the POSIX implementation supplied by
              this C library (e.g., "NPTL 2.3.4" or "linuxthreads-0.10").

       <b>_CS_PATH</b>
              A value for the <b>PATH </b>variable which indicates where all the
              POSIX.2 standard utilities can be found.

       If <i>buf</i> is not NULL and <i>len</i> is not zero, <b>confstr</b>() copies the value of
       the string to <i>buf</i> truncated to <i>len - 1</i> bytes if necessary, with a
       null byte ('\0') as terminator.  This can be detected by comparing
       the return value of <b>confstr</b>() against <i>len</i>.

       If <i>len</i> is zero and <i>buf</i> is NULL, <b>confstr</b>() just returns the value as
       defined below.
</pre>
<h2><a id="RETURN_VALUE" href="confstr.3.html#RETURN_VALUE"></a>RETURN VALUE  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       If <i>name</i> is a valid configuration variable, <b>confstr</b>() returns the
       number of bytes (including the terminating null byte) that would be
       required to hold the entire value of that variable.  This value may
       be greater than <i>len</i>, which means that the value in <i>buf</i> is truncated.

       If <i>name</i> is a valid configuration variable, but that variable does not
       have a value, then <b>confstr</b>() returns 0.  If <i>name</i> does not correspond
       to a valid configuration variable, <b>confstr</b>() returns 0, and <i><a href="errno.3.html">errno</a></i> is
       set to <b>EINVAL</b>.
</pre>
<h2><a id="ERRORS" href="confstr.3.html#ERRORS"></a>ERRORS  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       <b>EINVAL </b>The value of <i>name</i> is invalid.
</pre>
<h2><a id="ATTRIBUTES" href="confstr.3.html#ATTRIBUTES"></a>ATTRIBUTES  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       <a href="../man7/attributes.7.html">attributes(7)</a>.

       ┌──────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │<b>Interface </b>│ <b>Attribute     </b>│ <b>Value   </b>│
       ├──────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │<b>confstr</b>() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └──────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
</pre>
<h2><a id="CONFORMING_TO" href="confstr.3.html#CONFORMING_TO"></a>CONFORMING TO  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.
</pre>
<h2><a id="EXAMPLE" href="confstr.3.html#EXAMPLE"></a>EXAMPLE  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       The following code fragment determines the path where to find the
       POSIX.2 system utilities:

           char *pathbuf;
           size_t n;

           n = confstr(_CS_PATH, NULL, (size_t) 0);
           pathbuf = malloc(n);
           if (pathbuf == NULL)
               abort();
           confstr(_CS_PATH, pathbuf, n);
</pre>
<h2><a id="SEE_ALSO" href="confstr.3.html#SEE_ALSO"></a>SEE ALSO  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       <b>getconf</b>(1), <b>sh</b>(1), <a href="exec.3.html">exec(3)</a>, <a href="fpathconf.3.html">fpathconf(3)</a>, <a href="pathconf.3.html">pathconf(3)</a>, <a href="sysconf.3.html">sysconf(3)</a>,
       <a href="system.3.html">system(3)</a>
</pre>
<h2><a id="COLOPHON" href="confstr.3.html#COLOPHON"></a>COLOPHON  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="confstr.3.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       This page is part of release 4.15 of the Linux <i>man-pages</i> project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest version of this page, can be found at
       <a href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/">https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/</a>.

<span class="footline">GNU                              2017-09-15                       CONFSTR(3)</span>
</pre>

<hr class="end-man-text" />
<p>Pages that refer to this page: 
    <a href="fpathconf.3.html">fpathconf(3)</a>,&nbsp; 
    <a href="gnu_get_libc_version.3.html">gnu_get_libc_version(3)</a>,&nbsp; 
    <a href="sysconf.3.html">sysconf(3)</a>,&nbsp; 
    <a href="../man7/posixoptions.7.html">posixoptions(7)</a>,&nbsp; 
    <a href="../man7/standards.7.html">standards(7)</a>
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