system, _wsystem

Execute a command.

int system( const char *command );

int _wsystem( const wchar_t *command );

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Libraries

Return Value

If command is NULL and the command interpreter is found, the function returns a nonzero value. If the command interpreter is not found, it returns 0 and sets errno to ENOENT. If command is not NULL, system returns the value that is returned by the command interpreter. It returns the value 0 only if the command interpreter returns the value 0. A return value of – 1 indicates an error, and errno is set to one of the following values:

E2BIG

Argument list (which is system-dependent) is too big.

ENOENT

Command interpreter cannot be found.

ENOEXEC

Command-interpreter file has invalid format and is not executable.

ENOMEM

Not enough memory is available to execute command; or available memory has been corrupted; or invalid block exists, indicating that process making call was not allocated properly.

Parameter

command

Command to be executed

Remarks

The system function passes command to the command interpreter, which executes the string as an operating-system command. system refers to the COMSPEC and PATH environment variables that locate the command-interpreter file (the file named CMD.EXE in Windows NT). If command is NULL, the function simply checks to see whether the command interpreter exists.

You must explicitly flush (using fflush or _flushall) or close any stream before calling system.

_wsystem is a wide-character version of system; the command argument to _wsystem is a wide-character string. These functions behave identically otherwise.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

Example

/* SYSTEM.C: This program uses
 * system to TYPE its source file.
 */

#include <process.h>

void main( void )
{
   system( "type system.c" );
}

Output

/* SYSTEM.C: This program uses
 * system to TYPE its source file.
 */
#include <process.h>
void main( void )
{
   system( "type system.c" );
}

Process and Environment Control Routines

See Also   _exec Functions, exit, _flushall, _spawn Functions