Skip to content

opencomputers-machine.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
134 lines (90 loc) · 3.47 KB

opencomputers-machine.md

File metadata and controls

134 lines (90 loc) · 3.47 KB
Raw

computer

Summary

This page documents the built-in OpenComputers machine component. The generated filename is opencomputers-machine.md, but the real component name exposed by a machine node is computer.

The component provides basic machine control and introspection:

  • start and stop
  • running-state queries
  • simple audible beeps
  • device inventory metadata
  • known program locations

Availability

  • Repository: opencomputers
  • Actual component name: computer
  • Typical host: OpenComputers computer or case machine node

Usage

local component = require("component")
local computerComponent = component.computer

if not computerComponent then
  error("computer component not available")
end

API

start

  • Syntax: computerComponent.start()
  • Returns: boolean
  • Purpose: Starts the machine if it is currently stopped.

Behavior:

  • Returns true only when the state actually changes.
  • Returns false if the machine is already running, stopping, or otherwise cannot start.
  • Startup can still fail internally for reasons such as missing CPU, RAM, power, or too many components. In those cases the machine emits crash feedback and the callback returns false.

stop

  • Syntax: computerComponent.stop()
  • Returns: boolean
  • Purpose: Requests a shutdown.

Behavior:

  • Returns true only when a stop request was newly accepted.
  • Returns false if the machine is already stopped or already stopping.

isRunning

  • Syntax: computerComponent.isRunning()
  • Returns: boolean
  • Purpose: Returns whether the machine is considered running.

Behavior:

  • This remains true while paused.
  • It becomes false only when the top machine state is Stopped or Stopping.

beep

  • Syntax:
    • computerComponent.beep(pattern)
    • computerComponent.beep([frequency[, duration]])
  • Returns: no meaningful value
  • Purpose: Plays an audible feedback tone or tone pattern.

Parameters:

  • pattern:string: OpenComputers beep pattern string.
  • frequency:number optional: tone frequency in hertz.
  • duration:number optional: tone duration in seconds.

Behavior:

  • Numeric frequency must be in the range 20 through 2000, otherwise the callback throws invalid frequency, must be in [20, 2000].
  • Numeric duration is converted to milliseconds and clamped to 50 through 5000.
  • For numeric beeps, the calling context pauses for the beep duration.

Example:

computerComponent.beep(880, 0.2)
computerComponent.beep("..")

getDeviceInfo

  • Syntax: computerComponent.getDeviceInfo()
  • Returns: table
  • Purpose: Collects device metadata for visible and reachable components on the machine network.

Behavior:

  • The callback pauses for 1 second because iterating all nodes can be expensive.
  • The returned table is keyed by component address.
  • Each value is a metadata table containing fields such as class, description, vendor, and product when the target host provides them.

getProgramLocations

  • Syntax: computerComponent.getProgramLocations()
  • Returns: table
  • Purpose: Returns a map from known program names to the disk label that provides them.

Behavior:

  • The mapping depends on the active architecture name.

Example

print("Running:", computerComponent.isRunning())

for address, info in pairs(computerComponent.getDeviceInfo()) do
  print(address, info.description, info.product)
end

for program, disk in pairs(computerComponent.getProgramLocations()) do
  print(program, disk)
end

Related

  • component
  • opencomputers-screen