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NSProcessInfo Class Reference

Overview

The NSProcessInfo class provides methods to access information about the current process. Each process has a single, shared NSProcessInfo object, known as process information agent.

The process information agent can return such information as the arguments, environment variables, host name, or process name. The processInfo class method returns the shared agent for the current process—that is, the process whose object sent the message. For example, the following line returns the NSProcessInfo object, which then provides the name of the current process:

NSString *processName = [[NSProcessInfo processInfo] processName];

The NSProcessInfo class also includes the operatingSystem method, which returns an enum constant identifying the operating system on which the process is executing.

NSProcessInfo objects attempt to interpret environment variables and command-line arguments in the user's default C string encoding if they cannot be converted to Unicode as UTF-8 strings. If neither conversion works, these values are ignored by the NSProcessInfo object.

Tasks

Getting the Process Information Agent

• + processInfo

Accessing Process Information

• – arguments
• – environment
• – processIdentifier
• – globallyUniqueString
• – processName
• – setProcessName:

Getting Host Information

• – hostName
• – operatingSystem
• – operatingSystemName
• – operatingSystemVersionString

Getting Computer Information

• – physicalMemory
• – processorCount
• – activeProcessorCount

Class Methods

processInfo

Returns the process information agent for the process.

+ (NSProcessInfo *)processInfo

Return Value

Shared process information agent for the process.

Discussion

An NSProcessInfo object is created the first time this method is invoked, and that same object is returned on each subsequent invocation.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Related Sample Code

• CocoaEcho
• CocoaHTTPServer
• Quartz Composer WWDC 2005 TextEdit
• TextEditPlus
• URL CacheInfo

Declared In

Instance Methods

activeProcessorCount

Provides the number of active processing cores available on the computer.

- (NSUInteger)activeProcessorCount

Return Value

Number of active processing cores.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.5 and later.

See Also

• – processorCount

Declared In

arguments

Returns the command-line arguments for the process.

- (NSArray *)arguments

Return Value

Array of strings with the process’s command-line arguments.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared In

environment

Returns the variable names and their values in the environment from which the process was launched.

- (NSDictionary *)environment

Return Value

Dictionary of environment-variable names (keys) and their values.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared In

globallyUniqueString

Returns a global unique identifier for the process.

- (NSString *)globallyUniqueString

Return Value

Global ID for the process. The ID includes the host name, process ID, and a time stamp, which ensures that the ID is unique for the network.

Discussion

This method generates a new string each time it is invoked, so it also uses a counter to guarantee that strings created from the same process are unique.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

See Also

• – processName

Related Sample Code

• Quartz Composer WWDC 2005 TextEdit
• TextEditPlus

Declared In

hostName

Returns the name of the host computer.

- (NSString *)hostName

Return Value

Host name of the computer.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared In

operatingSystem

Returns a constant to indicate the operating system on which the process is executing.

- (unsigned int)operatingSystem

Return Value

Operating system identifier. See “Constants” for a list of possible values. In Mac OS X, it’s NSMACHOperatingSystem.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared In

operatingSystemName

Returns a string containing the name of the operating system on which the process is executing.

- (NSString *)operatingSystemName

Return Value

Operating system name. In Mac OS X, it’s @"NSMACHOperatingSystem"

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared In

operatingSystemVersionString

Returns a string containing the version of the operating system on which the process is executing.

- (NSString *)operatingSystemVersionString

Return Value

Operating system version. This string is human readable, localized, and is appropriate for displaying to the user. This string is not appropriate for parsing.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.2 and later.

Declared In

physicalMemory

Provides the amount of physical memory on the computer.

- (unsigned long long)physicalMemory

Return Value

Amount of physical memory in bytes.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.5 and later.

Declared In

processIdentifier

Returns the identifier of the process.

- (int)processIdentifier

Return Value

Process ID of the process.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

See Also

• – processName

Related Sample Code

• Quartz Composer WWDC 2005 TextEdit
• TextEditPlus

Declared In

processName

Returns the name of the process.

- (NSString *)processName

Return Value

Name of the process.

Discussion

The process name is used to register application defaults and is used in error messages. It does not uniquely identify the process.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

See Also

• – processIdentifier
• – setProcessName:

Related Sample Code

• URL CacheInfo

Declared In

processorCount

Provides the number of processing cores available on the computer.

- (NSUInteger)processorCount

Return Value

Number of processing cores.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.5 and later.

See Also

• – activeProcessorCount

Declared In

setProcessName:

Sets the name of the process.

- (void)setProcessName:(NSString *)name

Parameters

name

New name for the process.

Discussion

Warning:  User defaults and other aspects of the environment might depend on the process name, so be very careful if you change it. Setting the process name in this manner is not thread safe.

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

See Also

• – processName

Declared In

Constants

NSProcessInfo—Operating Systems

The following constants are provided by the NSProcessInfo class as return values for operatingSystem.

enum {
   NSWindowsNTOperatingSystem = 1,
   NSWindows95OperatingSystem,
   NSSolarisOperatingSystem,
   NSHPUXOperatingSystem,
   NSMACHOperatingSystem,
   NSSunOSOperatingSystem,
   NSOSF1OperatingSystem
};

Constants

NSHPUXOperatingSystem

Indicates the HP UX operating system.

Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared in NSProcessInfo.h.

NSMACHOperatingSystem

Indicates the Mac OS X operating system.

Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared in NSProcessInfo.h.

NSOSF1OperatingSystem

Indicates the OSF/1 operating system.

Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared in NSProcessInfo.h.

NSSolarisOperatingSystem

Indicates the Solaris operating system.

Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared in NSProcessInfo.h.

NSSunOSOperatingSystem

Indicates the Sun OS operating system.

Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared in NSProcessInfo.h.

NSWindows95OperatingSystem

Indicates the Windows 95 operating system.

Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared in NSProcessInfo.h.

NSWindowsNTOperatingSystem

Indicates the Windows NT operating system.

Available in Mac OS X v10.0 and later.

Declared in NSProcessInfo.h.

Declared In

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