System

The System module provides access to variables used or maintained by the VM and to functions that interact directly with the VM or the host system.

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Summary

argv()

List command line arguments

argv(args)

Modify command line arguments

at_exit(fun)

Register a program exit handler function

build_info()

Elixir build information

cmd(command)

Execute a system command

cwd!()

Current working directory, exception on error

cwd()

Current working directory

find_executable(program)

Locate an executable on the system

get_env()

System environment variables

get_env(varname)

Environment variable value

get_pid()

Erlang VM process identifier

halt(status \\ 0)

Halt the Erlang runtime system

put_env(dict)

Set multiple environment variables

put_env(varname, value)

Set an environment variable value

stacktrace()

Last exception stacktrace

tmp_dir!()

Writable temporary directory, exception on error

tmp_dir()

Writable temporary directory

user_home!()

User home directory, exception on error

user_home()

User home directory

version()

Elixir version information

Functions

argv()

Specs:

List command line arguments.

Returns the list of command line arguments passed to the program.

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argv(args)

Specs:

Modify command line arguments.

Changes the list of command line arguments. Use it with caution, as it destroys any previous argv information.

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at_exit(fun)

Register 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 function must receive the exit status code as an argument.

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build_info()

Specs:

Elixir build information.

Returns a keyword list with Elixir version, git tag info and compilation date.

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cmd(command)

Specs:

  • cmd(char_list) :: char_list
  • cmd(binary) :: binary

Execute a system command.

Executes command in a command shell of the target OS, captures the standard output of the command and returns the result as a binary.

If command is a char list, a char list is returned. Returns a binary otherwise.

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cwd()

Current working directory.

Returns the current working directory or nil if one is not available.

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cwd!()

Current working directory, exception on error.

Returns the current working directory or raises RuntimeError.

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find_executable(program)

Specs:

  • find_executable(char_list) :: char_list | nil
  • find_executable(binary) :: binary | nil

Locate 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 OS, so for Windows it will try to lookup files with .com, .cmd or similar extensions.

If program is a char list, a char list is returned. Returns a binary otherwise.

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get_env()

Specs:

System environment variables.

Returns a list of all environment variables. Each variable is given as a {name, value} tuple where both name and value are strings.

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get_env(varname)

Specs:

  • get_env(binary) :: binary | nil

Environment variable value.

Returns the value of the environment variable varname as a binary, or nil if the environment variable is undefined.

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get_pid()

Specs:

  • 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.

See http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/os.html#getpid-0 for more info.

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halt(status \\ 0)

Specs:

  • halt(non_neg_integer | binary | :abort) :: no_return

Halt the Erlang runtime system.

Halts the Erlang runtime system where the argument 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 char list, 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, check: http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.html#halt-1

Examples

System.halt(0)
System.halt(1)
System.halt(:abort)
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put_env(dict)

Specs:

Set multiple environment variables.

Sets a new value for each environment variable corresponding to each key in dict.

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put_env(varname, value)

Specs:

  • put_env(binary, binary) :: :ok

Set an environment variable value.

Sets a new value for the environment variable varname.

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stacktrace()

Last exception stacktrace.

Note that the Erlang VM (and therefore this function) does not return the current stacktrace but rather the stacktrace of the latest exception.

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tmp_dir()

Writable temporary directory.

Returns a writable temporary directory. Searches for directories in the following order:

  1. The directory named by the TMPDIR environment variable
  2. The directory named by the TEMP environment variable
  3. The directory named by the TMP environment variable
  4. C:\TMP on Windows or /tmp on Unix
  5. As a last resort, the current working directory

Returns nil if none of the above are writable.

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tmp_dir!()

Writable temporary directory, exception on error.

Same as tmp_dir/0 but raises RuntimeError instead of returning nil if no temp dir is set.

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user_home()

User home directory.

Returns the user home directory (platform independent). Returns nil if no user home is set.

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user_home!()

User home directory, exception on error.

Same as user_home/0 but raises RuntimeError instead of returning nil if no user home is set.

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version()

Specs:

Elixir version information.

Returns Elixir's version as binary.

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