Name

system - pass a command to the shell

Library

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

Synopsis

#include <stdlib.h>

int
system(const char *string);

Description

The system() function hands the argument string to the command interpreter sh(1) . The calling process waits for the shell to finish executing the command, ignoring SIGINT and SIGQUIT, and blocking SIGCHLD.

If string is a NULL pointer, system() will return non-zero if the command interpreter sh(1) is available, and zero if it is not.

The system() function returns the exit status of the shell as returned by waitpid(2) , or -1 if an error occurred when invoking fork(2) or waitpid(2) . A return value of 127 means the execution of the shell failed.

See Also

sh(1) , execve(2) , fork(2) , waitpid(2) , popen(3)

Standards

The system() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (``ISO C89'') and is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.

Table of Contents

• Name
• Library
• Synopsis
• Description
• See Also
• Standards