A new package RcppGetconf to read system configuration — not unlike getconf from the libc library. Now R can read what system calls sysconf, pathconf and confstr have to say. The package is still pretty green, and now on CRAN in a very first version, corresponding to a very first (and single !) commit.

Right now, the CRAN just has one function getAll() similar to getconf -a. A first example shows how it provides all values which can be retried — currently 320 on my systems.

R> res <- getAll()
R> head(res)
               key value type
1         LINK_MAX 65000 path
2  _POSIX_LINK_MAX 65000 path
3        MAX_CANON   255 path
4 _POSIX_MAX_CANON   255 path
5        MAX_INPUT   255 path
6 _POSIX_MAX_INPUT   255 path
R> tail(res)
                      key  value type
315    LEVEL4_CACHE_ASSOC      0  sys
316 LEVEL4_CACHE_LINESIZE      0  sys
317                  IPV6 200809  sys
318           RAW_SOCKETS 200809  sys
319           _POSIX_IPV6 200809  sys
320    _POSIX_RAW_SOCKETS 200809  sys
R> 

Earlier this evening I added a second function to the GitHub repo which can access indivial values.

But right now, the biggest need is really for someone with some systems skills—and an OS X machine—to look at the code, and maybe the getconf.c from the C library, in order to make this build OS X. If you can help, please get in touch.

More about the package is at the local RcppGetconf page and the GitHub repo.

This post by Dirk Eddelbuettel originated on his Thinking inside the box blog. Please report excessive re-aggregation in third-party for-profit settings.