OS Node.js v5.9.0 Manual & Documentation

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# 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.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:

    [ { 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:

    { 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.