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computer

Summary

The computer runtime library exposes machine identity, memory, energy, signal, user, and CPU-architecture helpers to Lua programs. It is one of the core APIs available on normal OpenComputers machines and is usually loaded with require("computer").

Availability

  • Repository: opencomputers
  • Type: core runtime API

Usage

local computer = require("computer")

print("Address:", computer.address())
print("Uptime:", computer.uptime())
print("Free memory:", computer.freeMemory())

What It Is Used For

  • Measuring uptime and wall-clock time.
  • Checking available memory before allocating large tables or buffers.
  • Pushing synthetic signals into the local event queue.
  • Querying and managing authorized users.
  • Reading the network energy buffer.
  • Inspecting or switching supported CPU architectures on mutable processors.

API

realTime()

  • Syntax: computer.realTime()
  • Returns: number
  • Purpose: Returns the real-world wall-clock timestamp in seconds.
  • Notes:
    • This is based on the host JVM system clock.
    • It is useful for timeout math and timestamps that should continue to make sense outside Minecraft tick time.

uptime()

  • Syntax: computer.uptime()
  • Returns: number
  • Purpose: Returns how many seconds the current computer has been running since it last started.

address()

  • Syntax: computer.address()
  • Returns: string or nil
  • Purpose: Returns the current computer node address on the OpenComputers component network.
  • Notes:
    • It may be nil very early in startup or if the machine currently has no valid node address.

freeMemory()

  • Syntax: computer.freeMemory()
  • Returns: number
  • Purpose: Returns the amount of Lua-visible free memory currently available.
  • Notes:
    • The value is reported after internal scaling used by the active Lua architecture.
    • This is the memory budget visible to Lua code, not total JVM memory.

totalMemory()

  • Syntax: computer.totalMemory()
  • Returns: number
  • Purpose: Returns the total Lua-visible memory budget available to the current machine.

pushSignal(name, ...)

  • Syntax: computer.pushSignal(name, ...)
  • Parameters:
    • name:string: signal name to queue.
    • ...:any: optional signal payload values.
  • Returns: boolean
  • Purpose: Pushes a signal into the local machine signal queue.
  • Typical uses:
    • Injecting custom application events.
    • Waking logic that already waits on event.pull().
    • Forwarding external state changes into a shared event-driven system.

tmpAddress()

  • Syntax: computer.tmpAddress()
  • Returns: string or nil
  • Purpose: Returns the component address of the temporary filesystem mounted as the machine's temp area, if one exists.

users()

  • Syntax: computer.users()
  • Returns: multiple string values
  • Purpose: Returns the list of currently authorized users for this machine.
  • Notes:
    • In practice you often collect them with {computer.users()}.

addUser(user)

  • Syntax: computer.addUser(user)
  • Parameters:
    • user:string: player name to authorize.
  • Returns:
    • Success: true
    • Failure: nil, reason
  • Purpose: Adds a player to the authorized user list.

removeUser(user)

  • Syntax: computer.removeUser(user)
  • Parameters:
    • user:string: player name to remove.
  • Returns: boolean
  • Purpose: Removes a player from the authorized user list.
  • Notes:
    • Returns false if the user was not present.

energy()

  • Syntax: computer.energy()
  • Returns: number
  • Purpose: Returns the current global energy buffer available to the computer network.
  • Notes:
    • If power usage is disabled in configuration, the result may be positive infinity.

maxEnergy()

  • Syntax: computer.maxEnergy()
  • Returns: number
  • Purpose: Returns the maximum size of the computer network's energy buffer.

getArchitectures()

  • Syntax: computer.getArchitectures()
  • Returns: table
  • Purpose: Returns the list of processor architectures supported by the currently installed CPU.
  • Notes:
    • Mutable processors can expose multiple architectures.
    • Fixed processors usually return a single-entry list.

getArchitecture()

  • Syntax: computer.getArchitecture()
  • Returns: string or nothing
  • Purpose: Returns the name of the currently active processor architecture.

setArchitecture(name)

  • Syntax: computer.setArchitecture(name)
  • Parameters:
    • name:string: architecture name to activate.
  • Returns:
    • true if the architecture changed.
    • false if that architecture was already active.
    • nil, "unknown architecture" if the requested name is not supported.
  • Purpose: Switches the CPU architecture on processors that allow it.
  • Notes:
    • This only works on mutable processors.
    • Scripts that depend on architecture-specific behavior should verify the result.

Example

local computer = require("computer")

print("Machine:", computer.address())
print("Running for:", computer.uptime(), "seconds")
print("Memory:", computer.freeMemory(), "/", computer.totalMemory())
print("Energy:", computer.energy(), "/", computer.maxEnergy())

computer.pushSignal("demo_event", "hello", 123)

for _, user in ipairs({computer.users()}) do
  print("Authorized:", user)
end

Related

  • component
  • event
  • os
  • unicode