system

 

C

Language

Standard Library

Type support

Dynamic memory management

Error handling

Program utilities

Date and time utilities

Strings library

Algorithms

Numerics

Input/output support

Localization support

Thread support (C11)

Atomic operations (C11)

 

Program support utilities

Program termination
abort exit quick_exit (C++11) _Exit (C++11)	atexit at_quick_exit (C++11) EXIT_SUCCESSEXIT_FAILURE
Communicating with the environment
system	getenv
Signals
signal raise sig_atomic_t	SIG_DFLSIG_IGN SIG_ERR
Signal types
SIGABRTSIGFPESIGILLSIGINTSIGSEGVSIGTERM
Non-local jumps
setjmp
longjmp
Types
jmp_buf

 

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 it 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

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:

Run this code

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

See also

C++ documentation for system