The System
module provides functions that interact directly with the VM or the host system.
The System
module also provides functions that work with time, returning different times kept by the system with support for different time units.
One of the complexities in relying on system times is that they may be adjusted. For example, when you enter and leave daylight saving time, the system clock will be adjusted, often adding or removing one hour. We call such changes "time warps". In order to understand how such changes may be harmful, imagine the following code:
## DO NOT DO THIS prev = System.os_time() # ... execute some code ... next = System.os_time() diff = next - prev
If, while the code is executing, the system clock changes, some code that executed in 1 second may be reported as taking over 1 hour! To address such concerns, the VM provides a monotonic time via System.monotonic_time/0
which never decreases and does not leap:
## DO THIS prev = System.monotonic_time() # ... execute some code ... next = System.monotonic_time() diff = next - prev
Generally speaking, the VM provides three time measurements:
os_time/0
- the time reported by the operating system (OS). This time may be adjusted forwards or backwards in time with no limitation;
system_time/0
- the VM view of the os_time/0
. The system time and operating system time may not match in case of time warps although the VM works towards aligning them. This time is not monotonic (i.e., it may decrease) as its behaviour is configured by the VM time warp mode;
monotonic_time/0
- a monotonically increasing time provided by the Erlang VM.
The time functions in this module work in the :native
unit (unless specified otherwise), which is operating system dependent. Most of the time, all calculations are done in the :native
unit, to avoid loss of precision, with convert_time_unit/3
being invoked at the end to convert to a specific time unit like :millisecond
or :microsecond
. See the time_unit/0
type for more information.
For a more complete rundown on the VM support for different times, see the chapter on time and time correction in the Erlang docs.
The time unit to be passed to functions like monotonic_time/1
and others.
Lists command line arguments.
Modifies command line arguments.
Registers a program exit handler function.
Elixir build information.
Executes the given command
with args
.
Returns the endianness the system was compiled with.
Converts time
from time unit from_unit
to time unit to_unit
.
Current working directory.
Current working directory, exception on error.
Deletes an environment variable.
Returns the endianness.
Returns the value of the given environment variable or :error
if not found.
Returns the value of the given environment variable or raises if not found.
Locates an executable on the system.
Returns all system environment variables.
Returns the value of the given environment variable.
Erlang VM process identifier.
Immediately halts the Erlang runtime system.
Returns the current monotonic time in the :native
time unit.
Returns the current monotonic time in the given time unit.
Checks if the system will halt or not at the end of ARGV processing.
Marks if the system should halt or not at the end of ARGV processing.
Returns the current operating system (OS) time.
Returns the current operating system (OS) time in the given time unit
.
Returns the Erlang/OTP release number.
Returns the operating system PID for the current Erlang runtime system instance.
Sets multiple environment variables.
Sets an environment variable value.
Restarts all applications in the Erlang runtime system.
Returns the number of schedulers in the VM.
Returns the number of schedulers online in the VM.
Deprecated mechanism to retrieve the last exception stacktrace.
Carefully stops the Erlang runtime system.
Returns the current system time in the :native
time unit.
Returns the current system time in the given time unit.
Returns the current time offset between the Erlang VM monotonic time and the Erlang VM system time.
Returns the current time offset between the Erlang VM monotonic time and the Erlang VM system time.
Writable temporary directory.
Writable temporary directory, exception on error.
Generates and returns an integer that is unique in the current runtime instance.
User home directory.
User home directory, exception on error.
Elixir version information.
time_unit() :: :second | :millisecond | :microsecond | :nanosecond | pos_integer()
The time unit to be passed to functions like monotonic_time/1
and others.
The :second
, :millisecond
, :microsecond
and :nanosecond
time units controls the return value of the functions that accept a time unit.
A time unit can also be a strictly positive integer. In this case, it represents the "parts per second": the time will be returned in 1 / parts_per_second
seconds. For example, using the :millisecond
time unit is equivalent to using 1000
as the time unit (as the time will be returned in 1/1000 seconds - milliseconds).
argv() :: [String.t()]
Lists command line arguments.
Returns the list of command line arguments passed to the program.
argv([String.t()]) :: :ok
Modifies command line arguments.
Changes the list of command line arguments. Use it with caution, as it destroys any previous argv information.
at_exit((non_neg_integer() -> any())) :: :ok
Registers a program exit handler function.
Registers a function that will be invoked at the end of program execution. Useful for invoking a hook in "script" mode.
The handler always executes in a different process from the one it was registered in. As a consequence, any resources managed by the calling process (ETS tables, open files, etc.) won't be available by the time the handler function is invoked.
The function must receive the exit status code as an argument.
build_info() :: %{ build: String.t(), date: String.t(), revision: String.t(), version: String.t(), otp_release: String.t() }
Elixir build information.
Returns a map with the Elixir version, the Erlang/OTP release it was compiled with, a short Git revision hash and the date and time it was built.
Every value in the map is a string, and these are:
:build
- the Elixir version, short Git revision hash and Erlang/OTP release it was compiled with :date
- a string representation of the ISO8601 date and time it was built :opt_release
- OTP release it was compiled with :revision
- short Git revision hash. If Git was not available at building time, it is set to ""
:version
- the Elixir version One should not rely on the specific formats returned by each of those fields. Instead one should use specialized functions, such as version/0
to retrieve the Elixir version and otp_release/0
to retrieve the Erlang/OTP release.
iex> System.build_info() %{ build: "1.9.0-dev (772a00a0c) (compiled with Erlang/OTP 21)", date: "2018-12-24T01:09:21Z", otp_release: "21", revision: "772a00a0c", version: "1.9.0-dev" }
cmd(binary(), [binary()], keyword()) :: {Collectable.t(), exit_status :: non_neg_integer()}
Executes the given command
with args
.
command
is expected to be an executable available in PATH unless an absolute path is given.
args
must be a list of binaries which the executable will receive as its arguments as is. This means that:
Path.wildcard/2
is used explicitly) This function returns a tuple containing the collected result and the command exit status.
Internally, this function uses a Port
for interacting with the outside world. However, if you plan to run a long-running program, ports guarantee stdin/stdout devices will be closed but it does not automatically terminate the program. The documentation for the Port
module describes this problem and possible solutions under the "Zombie processes" section.
iex> System.cmd("echo", ["hello"]) {"hello\n", 0} iex> System.cmd("echo", ["hello"], env: [{"MIX_ENV", "test"}]) {"hello\n", 0} iex> System.cmd("echo", ["hello"], into: IO.stream(:stdio, :line)) hello {%IO.Stream{}, 0}
:into
- injects the result into the given collectable, defaults to ""
:cd
- the directory to run the command in :env
- an enumerable of tuples containing environment key-value as binary :arg0
- sets the command arg0 :stderr_to_stdout
- redirects stderr to stdout when true
:parallelism
- when true
, the VM will schedule port tasks to improve parallelism in the system. If set to false
, the VM will try to perform commands immediately, improving latency at the expense of parallelism. The default can be set on system startup by passing the "+spp" argument to --erl
. If invalid arguments are given, ArgumentError
is raised by System.cmd/3
. System.cmd/3
also expects a strict set of options and will raise if unknown or invalid options are given.
Furthermore, System.cmd/3
may fail with one of the POSIX reasons detailed below:
:system_limit
- all available ports in the Erlang emulator are in use
:enomem
- there was not enough memory to create the port
:eagain
- there are no more available operating system processes
:enametoolong
- the external command given was too long
:emfile
- there are no more available file descriptors (for the operating system process that the Erlang emulator runs in)
:enfile
- the file table is full (for the entire operating system)
:eacces
- the command does not point to an executable file
:enoent
- the command does not point to an existing file
If you desire to execute a trusted command inside a shell, with pipes, redirecting and so on, please check :os.cmd/1
.
compiled_endianness() :: :little | :big
Returns the endianness the system was compiled with.
convert_time_unit(integer(), time_unit() | :native, time_unit() | :native) :: integer()
Converts time
from time unit from_unit
to time unit to_unit
.
The result is rounded via the floor function.
convert_time_unit/3
accepts an additional time unit (other than the ones in the time_unit/0
type) called :native
. :native
is the time unit used by the Erlang runtime system. It's determined when the runtime starts and stays the same until the runtime is stopped, but could differ the next time the runtime is started on the same machine. For this reason, you should use this function to convert :native
time units to a predictable unit before you display them to humans.
To determine how many seconds the :native
unit represents in your current runtime, you can can call this function to convert 1 second to the :native
time unit: System.convert_time_unit(1, :second, :native)
.
cwd() :: String.t() | nilThis function is deprecated. Use File.cwd/0 instead.
Current working directory.
Returns the current working directory or nil
if one is not available.
cwd!() :: String.t()This function is deprecated. Use File.cwd!/0 instead.
Current working directory, exception on error.
Returns the current working directory or raises RuntimeError
.
delete_env(String.t()) :: :ok
Deletes an environment variable.
Removes the variable varname
from the environment.
endianness() :: :little | :big
Returns the endianness.
fetch_env(String.t()) :: {:ok, String.t()} | :error
Returns the value of the given environment variable or :error
if not found.
If the environment variable varname
is set, then {:ok, value}
is returned where value
is a string. If varname
is not set, :error
is returned.
iex> System.fetch_env("PORT") {:ok, "4000"} iex> System.fetch_env("NOT_SET") :error
fetch_env!(String.t()) :: String.t()
Returns the value of the given environment variable or raises if not found.
Same as get_env/1
but raises instead of returning nil
when the variable is not set.
iex> System.fetch_env!("PORT") "4000" iex> System.fetch_env!("NOT_SET") ** (ArgumentError) could not fetch environment variable "NOT_SET" because it is not set
find_executable(binary()) :: binary() | nil
Locates an executable on the system.
This function looks up an executable program given its name using the environment variable PATH on Unix and Windows. It also considers the proper executable extension for each operating system, so for Windows it will try to lookup files with .com
, .cmd
or similar extensions.
get_env() :: %{optional(String.t()) => String.t()}
Returns all system environment variables.
The returned value is a map containing name-value pairs. Variable names and their values are strings.
get_env(String.t(), String.t() | nil) :: String.t() | nil
Returns the value of the given environment variable.
The returned value of the environment variable varname
is a string. If the environment variable is not set, returns the string specified in default
or nil
if none is specified.
iex> System.get_env("PORT") "4000" iex> System.get_env("NOT_SET") nil iex> System.get_env("NOT_SET", "4001") "4001"
get_pid() :: binary()
Erlang VM process identifier.
Returns the process identifier of the current Erlang emulator in the format most commonly used by the operating system environment.
For more information, see :os.getpid/0
.
halt(non_neg_integer() | binary() | :abort) :: no_return()
Immediately halts the Erlang runtime system.
Terminates the Erlang runtime system without properly shutting down applications and ports. Please see stop/1
for a careful shutdown of the system.
status
must be a non-negative integer, the atom :abort
or a binary.
If an integer, the runtime system exits with the integer value which is returned to the operating system.
If :abort
, the runtime system aborts producing a core dump, if that is enabled in the operating system.
If a string, an Erlang crash dump is produced with status as slogan, and then the runtime system exits with status code 1.
Note that on many platforms, only the status codes 0-255 are supported by the operating system.
For more information, see :erlang.halt/1
.
System.halt(0) System.halt(1) System.halt(:abort)
monotonic_time() :: integer()
Returns the current monotonic time in the :native
time unit.
This time is monotonically increasing and starts in an unspecified point in time.
Inlined by the compiler.
monotonic_time(time_unit()) :: integer()
Returns the current monotonic time in the given time unit.
This time is monotonically increasing and starts in an unspecified point in time.
no_halt() :: boolean()
Checks if the system will halt or not at the end of ARGV processing.
no_halt(boolean()) :: :ok
Marks if the system should halt or not at the end of ARGV processing.
os_time() :: integer()
Returns the current operating system (OS) time.
The result is returned in the :native
time unit.
This time may be adjusted forwards or backwards in time with no limitation and is not monotonic.
Inlined by the compiler.
os_time(time_unit()) :: integer()
Returns the current operating system (OS) time in the given time unit
.
This time may be adjusted forwards or backwards in time with no limitation and is not monotonic.
otp_release() :: String.t()
Returns the Erlang/OTP release number.
pid() :: String.t()
Returns the operating system PID for the current Erlang runtime system instance.
Returns a string containing the (usually) numerical identifier for a process. On UNIX, this is typically the return value of the getpid()
system call. On Windows, the process ID as returned by the GetCurrentProcessId()
system call is used.
System.pid()
put_env(Enumerable.t()) :: :ok
Sets multiple environment variables.
Sets a new value for each environment variable corresponding to each {key, value}
pair in enum
.
put_env(binary(), binary()) :: :ok
Sets an environment variable value.
Sets a new value
for the environment variable varname
.
restart() :: :ok
Restarts all applications in the Erlang runtime system.
All applications are taken down smoothly, all code is unloaded, and all ports are closed before the system starts all applications once again.
System.restart()
schedulers() :: pos_integer()
Returns the number of schedulers in the VM.
schedulers_online() :: pos_integer()
Returns the number of schedulers online in the VM.
Deprecated mechanism to retrieve the last exception stacktrace.
Accessing the stacktrace outside of a rescue/catch is deprecated. If you want to support only Elixir v1.7+, you must access __STACKTRACE__/0
inside a rescue/catch. If you want to support earlier Elixir versions, move System.stacktrace/0
inside a rescue/catch.
Note that the Erlang VM (and therefore this function) does not return the current stacktrace but rather the stacktrace of the latest exception. To retrieve the stacktrace of the current process, use Process.info(self(), :current_stacktrace)
instead.
stop(non_neg_integer() | binary()) :: no_return()
Carefully stops the Erlang runtime system.
All applications are taken down smoothly, all code is unloaded, and all ports are closed before the system terminates by calling halt/1
.
status
must be a non-negative integer value which is returned by the runtime system to the operating system.
Note that on many platforms, only the status codes 0-255 are supported by the operating system.
System.stop(0) System.stop(1)
system_time() :: integer()
Returns the current system time in the :native
time unit.
It is the VM view of the os_time/0
. They may not match in case of time warps although the VM works towards aligning them. This time is not monotonic.
Inlined by the compiler.
system_time(time_unit()) :: integer()
Returns the current system time in the given time unit.
It is the VM view of the os_time/0
. They may not match in case of time warps although the VM works towards aligning them. This time is not monotonic.
time_offset() :: integer()
Returns the current time offset between the Erlang VM monotonic time and the Erlang VM system time.
The result is returned in the :native
time unit.
See time_offset/1
for more information.
Inlined by the compiler.
time_offset(time_unit()) :: integer()
Returns the current time offset between the Erlang VM monotonic time and the Erlang VM system time.
The result is returned in the given time unit unit
. The returned offset, added to an Erlang monotonic time (e.g., obtained with monotonic_time/1
), gives the Erlang system time that corresponds to that monotonic time.
tmp_dir() :: String.t() | nil
Writable temporary directory.
Returns a writable temporary directory. Searches for directories in the following order:
C:\TMP
on Windows or /tmp
on Unix Returns nil
if none of the above are writable.
tmp_dir!() :: String.t()
Writable temporary directory, exception on error.
Same as tmp_dir/0
but raises RuntimeError
instead of returning nil
if no temp dir is set.
unique_integer([:positive | :monotonic]) :: integer()
Generates and returns an integer that is unique in the current runtime instance.
"Unique" means that this function, called with the same list of modifiers
, will never return the same integer more than once on the current runtime instance.
If modifiers
is []
, then a unique integer (that can be positive or negative) is returned. Other modifiers can be passed to change the properties of the returned integer:
:positive
- the returned integer is guaranteed to be positive. :monotonic
- the returned integer is monotonically increasing. This means that, on the same runtime instance (but even on different processes), integers returned using the :monotonic
modifier will always be strictly less than integers returned by successive calls with the :monotonic
modifier. All modifiers listed above can be combined; repeated modifiers in modifiers
will be ignored.
Inlined by the compiler.
user_home() :: String.t() | nil
User home directory.
Returns the user home directory (platform independent).
user_home!() :: String.t()
User home directory, exception on error.
Same as user_home/0
but raises RuntimeError
instead of returning nil
if no user home is set.
version() :: String.t()
Elixir version information.
Returns Elixir's version as binary.
© 2012 Plataformatec
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/1.9.1/System.html