NodeJS: How To Use The OS Module

2019-08-25

Intro

Now we want to learn how to get information about the operating system by using the OS module.

Write a simple script

Open your terminal
Create a file named index.js:

touch index.js

Add this JavaScript code into it:

const { platform, arch, release, totalmem, freemem } = require("os");

console.log(`Your Operating System: ${release()} ${platform()} ${arch()}`);
console.log(
  `${((freemem() / totalmem()) * 100).toFixed(2)} % of your RAM is free.`
);

Note: I use the most used url properties to decrease the complexity of this simple example. To see all the available properties, read the docs of the OS module. There is a lot of cool stuff.

Every line explained

/*
  import the os module & destructure the desired properties/functions
  similar to:
  const os = require('os');
  const { platform, arch, release, totalmem, freemem } = os;
*/

const { platform, arch, release, totalmem, freemem } = require("os");

// log some information about the operating system
console.log(`Your Operating System: ${release()} ${platform()} ${arch()}`);

// log some information about the memory (ram) (number is rounded to two decimals)
console.log(
  `${((freemem() / totalmem()) * 100).toFixed(2)} % of your RAM is free.`
);

Run it from the terminal

Run it:

node index.js

Result:

Your Operating System: 5.2.9-arch1-1-ARCH linux x64
18.63 % of your RAM is free.

Questions

Do you have an interesting idea, what we could create with this module?

miku86