Question

I want to write a program which is capable of printing out system properties. Is this possible?

If so, with C/C++, how can one learn system features/properties?

For example, the following properties:

 hardware :
 Memory 3.8 gib
 ubuntu   :
 release 10.10 ( maveric )
 system status:
 available disk space 51.1 gib
 user name  :
 xxx
 processor :
 intel ... duo cpu e4600

The platform being Linux.

Answer 1

In Linux You can simple use the function:

int uname(struct utsname *buf);

by including the header

#include <sys/utsname.h>

it returns the system information as a part of the structure:

struct utsname 
   {
       char sysname[];    /* Operating system name (e.g., "Linux") */
       char nodename[];   /* Name within "some implementation-defined network" */
       char release[];    /* OS release (e.g., "2.6.28") */
       char version[];    /* OS version */
       char machine[];    /* Hardware identifier */
       #ifdef _GNU_SOURCE
       char domainname[]; /* NIS or YP domain name */
       #endif
   };

Well, if not all, atleast it gives you some system properties as you said. There should be other api available which can reveal all the information you need. You will need to check out the documentation & search around a bit for that.

EDIT:

Oh well, I just ripped this one off from the internet. This program shall help you run Linux commands programatically.

char* GetSystemOutput(char* cmd)
{
    int buff_size = 32;
    char* buff = new char[buff_size];

    char* ret = NULL;
    string str = "";

    int fd[2];
    int old_fd[3];
    pipe(fd);

    old_fd[0] = dup(STDIN_FILENO);
    old_fd[1] = dup(STDOUT_FILENO);
    old_fd[2] = dup(STDERR_FILENO);

    int pid = fork();
    switch(pid)
    {
        case 0:
               close(fd[0]);
               close(STDOUT_FILENO);
               close(STDERR_FILENO);
               dup2(fd[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
               dup2(fd[1], STDERR_FILENO);
               system(cmd);
               //execlp((const char*)cmd, cmd,0);
               close (fd[1]);
               exit(0);
               break;
        case -1:
               cerr << "GetSystemOutput/fork() error\n" << endl;
               exit(1);
        default:
               close(fd[1]);
               dup2(fd[0], STDIN_FILENO);

               int rc = 1;
               while (rc > 0)
               {
                   rc = read(fd[0], buff, buff_size);
                   str.append(buff, rc);
                   //memset(buff, 0, buff_size);
               }

               ret = new char [strlen((char*)str.c_str())];

               strcpy(ret, (char*)str.c_str());

               waitpid(pid, NULL, 0);
               close(fd[0]);
    }

    dup2(STDIN_FILENO, old_fd[0]);
    dup2(STDOUT_FILENO, old_fd[1]);
    dup2(STDERR_FILENO, old_fd[2]);

    return ret;
}

Api Usage: GetSystemOutput("/usr/bin/lsb_release -a")

And following the commands:

cat /proc/cpuinfo = tells you cpu info
cat /proc/meminfo = tells you memory info
lspci = tells you hardware that is attached (at least if the kernel recognizes it) 
cat /proc/ide/hda/* = tells you info of your first ide hard-drive.