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system

Defined in header `<stdlib.h>`
int system( const char *command );

Calls the host environment's command processor with command parameter. Returns implementation-defined value (usually the value that the invoked program returns).

If command is NULL pointer, checks if host environment has a command processor and returns nonzero value only if the command processor exists.

Parameters

command

character string identifying the command to be run in the command processor. If NULL pointer is given, command processor is checked for existence

Return value

Implementation-defined value. If command is NULL, returns nonzero value only if command processor exists.

Notes

On POSIX systems, the return value can be decomposed using WEXITSTATUS and WSTOPSIG.

Related POSIX function popen makes the output generated by command available to the caller.

Example

In this example there is a system call of the unix command ls -l >test.txt:

#include <stdlib.h>
 
int main(void) {
 
    system("ls -l >test.txt");
 
    return 0;
}

References

C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

7.22.4.8 The system function (p: 353-354)

C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

7.20.4.6 The system function (p: 317)

C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):