system(3S) manual page
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system - issue a shell command
#include <stdlib.h>
int system(const
char *string);
Unsafe
system() causes the string to
be given to the shell as input, as if the string had been typed as a
command at a terminal. The invoker waits until the shell has completed,
then returns the exit status of the shell in the format specified by waitpid(2)
.
If string is a null pointer, system() checks if the shell exists and is
executable. If the shell is available, system() returns non-zero; otherwise
it returns zero.
- Solaris
- system() uses /usr/bin/sh (see sh(1)
).
- XPG4
- system()
uses the XPG4-compliant shell /usr/bin/ksh (see ksh(1)
).
system()
forks to create a child process that in turn execs the shell in order to
execute string. If the fork() or exec() fails, system() returns a value
of -1 and sets errno.
system() fails if one or more of the following
are true:
- EAGAIN
- The system-imposed limit on the total number of processes
under execution by a single user would be exceeded.
- EINTR
- system() was
interrupted by a signal.
- ENOMEM
- The new process requires more memory than
is available.
ksh(1)
, sh(1)
, useradd(1M)
, exec(2)
, fork(2)
, setuid(2)
,
waitpid(2)
, xpg4(5)
system() will fail to execute setuid() or setgid()
if either the uid or gid of the application’s owner/group is less than 100.
(see useradd(1M)
and setuid(2)
).
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