# OS
> Stability: 2 - Stable
The `os` module provides operating system-related utility methods and
properties. It can be accessed using:
```js
const os = require('os');
```
## `os.EOL`
* {string}
The operating system-specific end-of-line marker.
* `\n` on POSIX
* `\r\n` on Windows
## `os.arch()`
* Returns: {string}
Returns the operating system CPU architecture for which the Node.js binary was
compiled. Possible values are `'arm'`, `'arm64'`, `'ia32'`, `'mips'`,
`'mipsel'`, `'ppc'`, `'ppc64'`, `'s390'`, `'s390x'`, `'x32'`, and `'x64'`.
The return value is equivalent to [`process.arch`][].
## `os.constants`
* {Object}
Contains commonly used operating system-specific constants for error codes,
process signals, and so on. The specific constants defined are described in
[OS Constants](#os_os_constants_1).
## `os.cpus()`
* Returns: {Object[]}
Returns an array of objects containing information about each logical CPU core.
The properties included on each object include:
* `model` {string}
* `speed` {number} (in MHz)
* `times` {Object}
* `user` {number} The number of milliseconds the CPU has spent in user mode.
* `nice` {number} The number of milliseconds the CPU has spent in nice mode.
* `sys` {number} The number of milliseconds the CPU has spent in sys mode.
* `idle` {number} The number of milliseconds the CPU has spent in idle mode.
* `irq` {number} The number of milliseconds the CPU has spent in irq mode.
```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
}
}
]
```
`nice` values are POSIX-only. On Windows, the `nice` values of all processors
are always 0.
## `os.endianness()`
* Returns: {string}
Returns a string identifying the endianness of the CPU for which the Node.js
binary was compiled.
Possible values are `'BE'` for big endian and `'LE'` for little endian.
## `os.freemem()`
* Returns: {integer}
Returns the amount of free system memory in bytes as an integer.
## `os.getPriority([pid])`
* `pid` {integer} The process ID to retrieve scheduling priority for.
**Default** `0`.
* Returns: {integer}
Returns the scheduling priority for the process specified by `pid`. If `pid` is
not provided or is `0`, the priority of the current process is returned.
## `os.homedir()`
* Returns: {string}
Returns the string path of the current user's home directory.
On POSIX, it uses the `$HOME` environment variable if defined. Otherwise it
uses the [effective UID][EUID] to look up the user's home directory.
On Windows, it uses the `USERPROFILE` environment variable if defined.
Otherwise it uses the path to the profile directory of the current user.
## `os.hostname()`
* Returns: {string}
Returns the host name of the operating system as a string.
## `os.loadavg()`
* Returns: {number[]}
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.
The load average is a Unix-specific concept. On Windows, the return value is
always `[0, 0, 0]`.
## `os.networkInterfaces()`
* Returns: {Object}
Returns an object containing network interfaces that have been assigned a
network address.
Each key on the returned object identifies a network interface. The associated
value is an array of objects that each describe an assigned network address.
The properties available on the assigned network address object include:
* `address` {string} The assigned IPv4 or IPv6 address
* `netmask` {string} The IPv4 or IPv6 network mask
* `family` {string} Either `IPv4` or `IPv6`
* `mac` {string} The MAC address of the network interface
* `internal` {boolean} `true` if the network interface is a loopback or
similar interface that is not remotely accessible; otherwise `false`
* `scopeid` {number} The numeric IPv6 scope ID (only specified when `family`
is `IPv6`)
* `cidr` {string} The assigned IPv4 or IPv6 address with the routing prefix
in CIDR notation. If the `netmask` is invalid, this property is set
to `null`.
```js
{
lo: [
{
address: '127.0.0.1',
netmask: '255.0.0.0',
family: 'IPv4',
mac: '00:00:00:00:00:00',
internal: true,
cidr: '127.0.0.1/8'
},
{
address: '::1',
netmask: 'ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff',
family: 'IPv6',
mac: '00:00:00:00:00:00',
scopeid: 0,
internal: true,
cidr: '::1/128'
}
],
eth0: [
{
address: '192.168.1.108',
netmask: '255.255.255.0',
family: 'IPv4',
mac: '01:02:03:0a:0b:0c',
internal: false,
cidr: '192.168.1.108/24'
},
{
address: 'fe80::a00:27ff:fe4e:66a1',
netmask: 'ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::',
family: 'IPv6',
mac: '01:02:03:0a:0b:0c',
scopeid: 1,
internal: false,
cidr: 'fe80::a00:27ff:fe4e:66a1/64'
}
]
}
```
## `os.platform()`
* Returns: {string}
Returns a string identifying the operating system platform. The value is set
at compile time. Possible values are `'aix'`, `'darwin'`, `'freebsd'`,
`'linux'`, `'openbsd'`, `'sunos'`, and `'win32'`.
The return value is equivalent to [`process.platform`][].
The value `'android'` may also be returned if Node.js is built on the Android
operating system. [Android support is experimental][Android building].
## `os.release()`
* Returns: {string}
Returns the operating system as a string.
On POSIX systems, the operating system release is determined by calling
[uname(3)][]. On Windows, `GetVersionExW()` is used. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uname#Examples for more information.
## `os.setPriority([pid, ]priority)`
* `pid` {integer} The process ID to set scheduling priority for.
**Default** `0`.
* `priority` {integer} The scheduling priority to assign to the process.
Attempts to set the scheduling priority for the process specified by `pid`. If
`pid` is not provided or is `0`, the process ID of the current process is used.
The `priority` input must be an integer between `-20` (high priority) and `19`
(low priority). Due to differences between Unix priority levels and Windows
priority classes, `priority` is mapped to one of six priority constants in
`os.constants.priority`. When retrieving a process priority level, this range
mapping may cause the return value to be slightly different on Windows. To avoid
confusion, set `priority` to one of the priority constants.
On Windows, setting priority to `PRIORITY_HIGHEST` requires elevated user
privileges. Otherwise the set priority will be silently reduced to
`PRIORITY_HIGH`.
## `os.tmpdir()`
* Returns: {string}
Returns the operating system's default directory for temporary files as a
string.
## `os.totalmem()`
* Returns: {integer}
Returns the total amount of system memory in bytes as an integer.
## `os.type()`
* Returns: {string}
Returns the operating system name as returned by [uname(3)][]. For example, it
returns `'Linux'` on Linux, `'Darwin'` on macOS, and `'Windows_NT'` on Windows.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uname#Examples for additional information
about the output of running [uname(3)][] on various operating systems.
## `os.uptime()`
* Returns: {integer}
Returns the system uptime in number of 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: {Object}
Returns information about the currently effective user. On POSIX platforms,
this is typically a subset of the password file. 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 `os.userInfo()` is provided by the operating
system. This differs from the result of `os.homedir()`, which queries
environment variables for the home directory before falling back to the
operating system response.
Throws a [`SystemError`][] if a user has no `username` or `homedir`.
## OS Constants
The following constants are exported by `os.constants`.
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 process 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 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. Although
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. |
### dlopen Constants
If available on the operating system, the following constants
are exported in `os.constants.dlopen`. See dlopen(3) for detailed
information.
Constant |
Description |
RTLD_LAZY |
Perform lazy binding. Node.js sets this flag by default. |
RTLD_NOW |
Resolve all undefined symbols in the library before dlopen(3)
returns. |
RTLD_GLOBAL |
Symbols defined by the library will be made available for symbol
resolution of subsequently loaded libraries. |
RTLD_LOCAL |
The converse of RTLD_GLOBAL . This is the default behavior
if neither flag is specified. |
RTLD_DEEPBIND |
Make a self-contained library use its own symbols in preference to
symbols from previously loaded libraries. |
### Priority Constants
The following process scheduling constants are exported by
`os.constants.priority`.
Constant |
Description |
PRIORITY_LOW |
The lowest process scheduling priority. This corresponds to
IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS on Windows, and a nice value of
19 on all other platforms. |
PRIORITY_BELOW_NORMAL |
The process scheduling priority above PRIORITY_LOW and
below PRIORITY_NORMAL . This corresponds to
BELOW_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS on Windows, and a nice value of
10 on all other platforms. |
PRIORITY_NORMAL |
The default process scheduling priority. This corresponds to
NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS on Windows, and a nice value of
0 on all other platforms. |
PRIORITY_ABOVE_NORMAL |
The process scheduling priority above PRIORITY_NORMAL and
below PRIORITY_HIGH . This corresponds to
ABOVE_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS on Windows, and a nice value of
-7 on all other platforms. |
PRIORITY_HIGH |
The process scheduling priority above PRIORITY_ABOVE_NORMAL
and below PRIORITY_HIGHEST . This corresponds to
HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS on Windows, and a nice value of
-14 on all other platforms. |
PRIORITY_HIGHEST |
The highest process scheduling priority. This corresponds to
REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS on Windows, and a nice value of
-20 on all other platforms. |
### libuv Constants
Constant |
Description |
UV_UDP_REUSEADDR |
|
[`SystemError`]: errors.html#errors_class_systemerror
[`process.arch`]: process.html#process_process_arch
[`process.platform`]: process.html#process_process_platform
[Android building]: https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/master/BUILDING.md#androidandroid-based-devices-eg-firefox-os
[EUID]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_identifier#Effective_user_ID
[uname(3)]: https://linux.die.net/man/3/uname