Accessing macOS System Information

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Sysctl provides an interface that allows you to retrieve many kernel parameters in macOS (and Linux and the BSDs). This provides a wealth of information detailing system hardware which can be useful when debugging user issues or simply optimising your application (eg to take advantage of threads on multi-core CPU systems).

The '/usr/local/share/fpcsrc/rtl/darwin/sysctlh.inc' source file is a partial transalation of the macOS '/usr/include/sys/sysctl.h' file. For details of the sysctls available, start a Terminal and type 'man sysctl'.

The fpSysCtl() function allows you to retrieve system information. The data returned from the function comprises integers (integer and int64), strings (AnsiStrings) and C structures (records). The function is defined in 'sysctl.pp' as:

function FPsysctl (Name: pchar; namelen:cuint; oldp:pointer;oldlenp:psize_t; newp:pointer;newlen:size_t):cint; cdecl; external name 'sysctl';

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