R: Extract System and User Information

Sys.info {base}

R Documentation

Extract System and User Information

Description

Reports system and user information.

Usage

Sys.info()

Details

This function is not implemented on all R platforms, and returns NULL when not available. Where possible it is based on POSIX system calls. (Under Windows, it is obtained by Windows system calls and the last three values are the same.)

Sys.info() returns details of the platform R is running on, whereas R.version gives details of the platform R was built on: they may well be different.

Value

A character vector with fields

`sysname`	The operating system.
`release`	The OS release.
`version`	The OS version.
`nodename`	A name by which the machine is known on the network (if any).
`machine`	A concise description of the hardware.
`login`	The user's login name, or `"unknown"` if it cannot be ascertained.
`user`	The name of the real user ID, or `"unknown"` if it cannot be ascertained.
`effective_user`	The name of the effective user ID, or `"unknown"` if it cannot be ascertained. This may differ from the real user in ‘set-user-ID’ processes.

Note

The meaning of OS ‘release’ and ‘version’ is system-dependent and there is no guarantee that the node or login or user names will be what you might reasonably expect. (In particular on some Linux distributions the login name is unknown from sessions with re-directed inputs.)

The use of alternatives such as system("whoami") is not portable: the POSIX command system("id") is much more portable on Unix-alikes, provided only the POSIX options are used (and not the many GNU extensions).

Examples

Sys.info()
## An alternative (and probably better) way to get the login name on Unix
Sys.getenv("LOGNAME")

[Package base version 2.15.1 Index]