AppleScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

system attribute — gestalt and environment variables

Description

Returns the value of gestalt selectors.

Example

set n to system attribute "sysv"
set s to "print sprintf \"%lx\", " & n
set v to do shell script "perl -e " & quoted form of s
set L to characters of v
set v to "." & item -1 of L
set v to "." & item -2 of L & v
set v to ((items 1 thru -3 of L) as string) & v
display dialog "You are running system " & v & "!"

For a list of gestalt selectors, see http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Carbon/oss/GestaltManager/Gestalt_Manager/gestalt_refchap/ConstantsIndex.html.

Also returns the value of user environment variables. To find out what they are, give the system attribute command with no parameters.

Example

system attribute "SHELL" -- "/bin/tcsh"

For an example of the system attribute command used to fetch an environment variable, see Chapter 23.