--- /dev/null
+//////////////
+// Name : environment
+// Author : Chris Koeritz
+//////////////
+// Copyright (c) 1994-$now By Author. This program is free software; you can
+// redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
+// License as published by the Free Software Foundation:
+// http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
+// or under the terms of the GNU Library license:
+// http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html
+// at your preference. Those licenses describe your legal rights to this
+// software, and no other rights or warranties apply.
+// Please send updates for this code to: fred@gruntose.com -- Thanks, fred.
+//////////////
+
+#include "environment.h"
+
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#ifdef __UNIX__
+ #include <unistd.h>
+ #include <sys/times.h>
+#endif
+#ifdef __WIN32__
+ #define _WINSOCKAPI_ // make windows.h happy about winsock.
+ #include <windows.h>
+ #include <mmsystem.h>
+#endif
+
+namespace basis {
+
+astring environment::get(const astring &variable_name)
+{
+#ifdef __WIN32__
+ char *value = getenv(variable_name.upper().observe());
+ // dos & os/2 require upper case for the name, so we just do it that way.
+#else
+ char *value = getenv(variable_name.observe());
+ // reasonable OSes support mixed-case environment variables.
+#endif
+ astring to_return;
+ if (value)
+ to_return = astring(value);
+ return to_return;
+}
+
+bool environment::set(const astring &variable_name, const astring &value)
+{
+ int ret = 0;
+#ifdef __WIN32__
+ astring assignment = variable_name + "=" + value;
+ ret = _putenv(assignment.s());
+#else
+ ret = setenv(variable_name.s(), value.s(), true);
+#endif
+ return !ret;
+}
+
+basis::un_int environment::system_uptime()
+{
+#ifdef __WIN32__
+ return timeGetTime();
+#else
+ static clock_t __ctps = sysconf(_SC_CLK_TCK); // clock ticks per second.
+ static const double __multiplier = 1000.0 / double(__ctps);
+ // the multiplier gives us our full range for the tick counter.
+
+ // read uptime info from the OS.
+ tms uptime;
+ basis::un_int real_ticks = times(&uptime);
+
+ // now turn this into the number of milliseconds.
+ double ticks_up = (double)real_ticks;
+ ticks_up = ticks_up * __multiplier; // convert to time here.
+
+ // we use the previous version of this calculation, which expected a basis::u_int
+ // to double conversion to provide a modulo operation rather than just leaving
+ // the basis::un_int at its maximum value (2^32-1). however, that expectation is not
+ // guaranteed on some platforms (e.g., ARM processor with floating point
+ // emulation) and thus it becomes a bug around 49 days and 17 hours into
+ // OS uptime because the value gets stuck at 2^32-1 and never rolls over.
+ return basis::un_int(ticks_up);
+#endif
+}
+
+} //namespace.
+