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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>36.1. posix — The most common POSIX system calls — Python 2.7.18 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/classic.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript" id="documentation_options" data-url_root="../" src="../_static/documentation_options.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/language_data.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python 2.7.18 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="index" title="Index" href="../genindex.html" /> <link rel="search" title="Search" href="../search.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="next" title="36.2. pwd — The password database" href="pwd.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="36. Unix Specific Services" href="unix.html" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" /> <link rel="canonical" href="file:///usr/share/doc/python2.7/html/library/posix.html" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/copybutton.js"></script> </head><body> <div id="outdated-warning" style="padding: .5em; text-align: center; background-color: #FFBABA; color: #6A0E0E;"> This document is for an old version of Python that is <a href="https://devguide.python.org/devcycle/#end-of-life-branches">no longer supported</a>. You should install the python3 and python3-doc packages and read the <a href="file:///usr/share/doc/python3-doc/html/library/posix.html"> Python documentation for the Python3 version packaged in this release</a>. </div> <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="pwd.html" title="36.2. pwd — The password database" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="unix.html" title="36. Unix Specific Services" accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <a href="../index.html">Python 2.7.18 documentation</a> » </li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="unix.html" accesskey="U">36. Unix Specific Services</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body" role="main"> <div class="section" id="module-posix"> <span id="posix-the-most-common-posix-system-calls"></span><h1>36.1. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-posix" title="posix: The most common POSIX system calls (normally used via module os). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix</span></code></a> — The most common POSIX system calls<a class="headerlink" href="#module-posix" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p>This module provides access to operating system functionality that is standardized by the C Standard and the POSIX standard (a thinly disguised Unix interface).</p> <p id="index-0"><strong>Do not import this module directly.</strong> Instead, import the module <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a>, which provides a <em>portable</em> version of this interface. On Unix, the <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a> module provides a superset of the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-posix" title="posix: The most common POSIX system calls (normally used via module os). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix</span></code></a> interface. On non-Unix operating systems the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-posix" title="posix: The most common POSIX system calls (normally used via module os). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix</span></code></a> module is not available, but a subset is always available through the <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a> interface. Once <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a> is imported, there is <em>no</em> performance penalty in using it instead of <a class="reference internal" href="#module-posix" title="posix: The most common POSIX system calls (normally used via module os). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix</span></code></a>. In addition, <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a> provides some additional functionality, such as automatically calling <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.putenv" title="os.putenv"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">putenv()</span></code></a> when an entry in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.environ</span></code> is changed.</p> <p>Errors are reported as exceptions; the usual exceptions are given for type errors, while errors reported by the system calls raise <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.OSError" title="exceptions.OSError"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">OSError</span></code></a>.</p> <div class="section" id="large-file-support"> <span id="posix-large-files"></span><h2>36.1.1. Large File Support<a class="headerlink" href="#large-file-support" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p id="index-1">Several operating systems (including AIX, HP-UX, Irix and Solaris) provide support for files that are larger than 2 GB from a C programming model where <code class="xref c c-type docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">int</span></code> and <code class="xref c c-type docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">long</span></code> are 32-bit values. This is typically accomplished by defining the relevant size and offset types as 64-bit values. Such files are sometimes referred to as <em class="dfn">large files</em>.</p> <p>Large file support is enabled in Python when the size of an <code class="xref c c-type docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">off_t</span></code> is larger than a <code class="xref c c-type docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">long</span></code> and the <code class="xref c c-type docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">long</span> <span class="pre">long</span></code> type is available and is at least as large as an <code class="xref c c-type docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">off_t</span></code>. Python longs are then used to represent file sizes, offsets and other values that can exceed the range of a Python int. It may be necessary to configure and compile Python with certain compiler flags to enable this mode. For example, it is enabled by default with recent versions of Irix, but with Solaris 2.6 and 2.7 you need to do something like:</p> <div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">CFLAGS</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"`getconf LFS_CFLAGS`"</span> <span class="n">OPT</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"-g -O2 $CFLAGS"</span> \ <span class="o">./</span><span class="n">configure</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>On large-file-capable Linux systems, this might work:</p> <div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">CFLAGS</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'-D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64'</span> <span class="n">OPT</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"-g -O2 $CFLAGS"</span> \ <span class="o">./</span><span class="n">configure</span> </pre></div> </div> </div> <div class="section" id="notable-module-contents"> <span id="posix-contents"></span><h2>36.1.2. Notable Module Contents<a class="headerlink" href="#notable-module-contents" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>In addition to many functions described in the <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a> module documentation, <a class="reference internal" href="#module-posix" title="posix: The most common POSIX system calls (normally used via module os). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix</span></code></a> defines the following data item:</p> <dl class="data"> <dt id="posix.environ"> <code class="descclassname">posix.</code><code class="descname">environ</code><a class="headerlink" href="#posix.environ" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>A dictionary representing the string environment at the time the interpreter was started. For example, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">environ['HOME']</span></code> is the pathname of your home directory, equivalent to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">getenv("HOME")</span></code> in C.</p> <p>Modifying this dictionary does not affect the string environment passed on by <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.execv" title="os.execv"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">execv()</span></code></a>, <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.popen" title="os.popen"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">popen()</span></code></a> or <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.system" title="os.system"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">system()</span></code></a>; if you need to change the environment, pass <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">environ</span></code> to <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.execve" title="os.execve"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">execve()</span></code></a> or add variable assignments and export statements to the command string for <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.system" title="os.system"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">system()</span></code></a> or <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.popen" title="os.popen"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">popen()</span></code></a>.</p> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="first admonition-title">Note</p> <p class="last">The <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a> module provides an alternate implementation of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">environ</span></code> which updates the environment on modification. Note also that updating <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.environ</span></code> will render this dictionary obsolete. Use of the <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a> module version of this is recommended over direct access to the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-posix" title="posix: The most common POSIX system calls (normally used via module os). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix</span></code></a> module.</p> </div> </dd></dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table of Contents</a></h3> <ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#">36.1. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix</span></code> — The most common POSIX system calls</a><ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#large-file-support">36.1.1. Large File Support</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#notable-module-contents">36.1.2. Notable Module Contents</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="unix.html" title="previous chapter">36. Unix Specific Services</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="pwd.html" title="next chapter">36.2. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pwd</span></code> — The password database</a></p> <div role="note" aria-label="source link"> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../_sources/library/posix.rst.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none" role="search"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <div class="searchformwrapper"> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="pwd.html" title="36.2. pwd — The password database" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="unix.html" title="36. 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