System Utilities Overview

System Utility (sysutils) API provide functions to retrieve software and language package versions, Multi Media Card (MMC) and Flash File System (FFS) drive letters, device type information (e.g., manufacturer name, model name and model code) and the Symbian platform version number. It also provides functions to check whether disk space has reached a critical level.

System Utilities library details

The DLL that provides the functionality and the library to which your code must link is identified below.

DLL LIB

sysutil.dll

sysutil.lib

Description

System Utility (sysutils) API consists of SysUtil class and its six static functions.

Three functions supply the information required to display the version of phone software being used. This depends on the currently installed language package.

  • GetSWVersion() returns the current phone software version.

  • GetLangVersion() returns the currently installed language package.

  • GetLangSWVersion() returns the most recent phone software version compatible with the currently installed language package.

The remaining static functions check the drive space.

  • FFSSpaceBelowCriticalLevel() checks Flash File System (also called the system drive).

  • MMCSpaceBelowCriticalLevel() checks the Multi Media Card.

  • DiskSpaceBelowCriticalLevel() checks the drive storage (sometimes called disk drives).

    NOTE: These functions require configuration of the RAM drive and non-RAM drives (disk drive, MMC, FFS) thresholds using patchable data. The patchdata for drive thresholds are set during the ROM build time using macros such as SYMBIAN_BAFL_SYSUTIL_RAM_DRIVE_CRITICAL_THRESHOLD and SYMBIAN_BAFL_SYSUTIL_OTHER_DISK_CRITICAL_THRESHOLD respectively. For more information on patchdata, refer to Patchable Constants section.

APIs

The key class of System Utilities is as follows:

API Description

SysUtil

Provides interfaces to retrieve different kinds of information about the system.

Using System Utilities

You can use the system utilities library to perform the following tasks:

  • Retrieve software and language package version strings for display purposes.

  • Check whether there is free space on a disk drive before file creation or writing.

  • Retrieve Device Type information (for example, phone model) for display purposes.

Related concepts