OS

The os module provides a number of operating system-related utility methods. It can be accessed using:

const os = require('os');

os.EOL

• <String>

A string constant defining the operating system-specific end-of-line marker:

• \n on POSIX
• \r\n on Windows

os.arch()

The os.arch() method returns a string identifying the operating system CPU architecture for which the Node.js binary was compiled.

The current possible values are: 'arm', 'arm64', 'ia32', 'mips', 'mipsel', 'ppc', 'ppc64', 's390', 's390x', 'x32', 'x64', and 'x86'.

Equivalent to process.arch.

os.constants

Returns an object containing commonly used operating system specific constants for error codes, process signals, and so on. The specific constants currently defined are described in OS Constants.

os.cpus()

• Returns: <Array>

The os.cpus() method returns an array of objects containing information about each CPU/core installed.

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.

For example:

[
  {
    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: Because nice values are UNIX-specific, on Windows the nice values of all processors are always 0.

os.endianness()

• Returns: <String>

The os.endianness() method returns a string identifying the endianness of the CPU for which the Node.js binary was compiled.

Possible values are:

• 'BE' for big endian
• 'LE' for little endian.

os.freemem()

• Returns: <Integer>

The os.freemem() method returns the amount of free system memory in bytes as an integer.

os.homedir()

• Returns: <String>

The os.homedir() method returns the home directory of the current user as a string.

os.hostname()

• Returns: <String>

The os.hostname() method returns the hostname of the operating system as a string.

os.loadavg()

• Returns: <Array>

The os.loadavg() method 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 UNIX-specific concept with no real equivalent on Windows platforms. On Windows, the return value is always [0, 0, 0].

os.networkInterfaces()

• Returns: <Object>

The os.networkInterfaces() method returns an object containing only 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)

{
  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
    }
  ]
}

os.platform()

• Returns: <String>

The os.platform() method returns a string identifying the operating system platform as set during compile time of Node.js.

Currently possible values are:

• 'aix'
• 'darwin'
• 'freebsd'
• 'linux'
• 'openbsd'
• 'sunos'
• 'win32'

Equivalent to process.platform.

Note: The value 'android' may also be returned if the Node.js is built on the Android operating system. However, Android support in Node.js is considered to be experimental at this time.

os.release()

• Returns: <String>

The os.release() method returns a string identifying the operating system release.

Note: On POSIX systems, the operating system release is determined by calling uname(3). On Windows, GetVersionExW() is used. Please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uname#Examples for more information.

os.tmpdir()

• Returns: <String>

The os.tmpdir() method returns a string specifying the operating system's default directory for temporary files.

os.totalmem()

• Returns: <Integer>

The os.totalmem() method returns the total amount of system memory in bytes as an integer.

os.type()

• Returns: <String>

The os.type() method returns a string identifying the operating system name as returned by uname(3). For example 'Linux' on Linux, 'Darwin' on OS X and 'Windows_NT' on Windows.

Please 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>

The os.uptime() method returns the system uptime in number of seconds.

Note: Within Node.js' internals, this number is represented as a double. However, fractional seconds are not returned and the value can typically be treated as an integer.

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>

The os.userInfo() method 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 several environment variables for the home directory before falling back to the operating system response.

OS Constants

The following constants are exported by os.constants. Note: 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 currently 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. Note that while 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.

libuv Constants

Constant	Description
UV_UDP_REUSEADDR