SYSTEM(3)

NAME
system - execute a shell command

SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>

int system (const char * string);

DESCRIPTION
system() executes a command specified in string by calling /bin/sh -c string, and returns after the command has been completed. During execution of the command, SIGCHLD will be blocked, and SIGINT and SIGQUIT will be ignored.

RETURN VALUE
The value returned is 127 if the execve() call for /bin/sh fails, -1 if there was another error and the return code of the command otherwise.

If the value of string is NULL, system() returns nonzero if the shell is available, and zero if not.

system() does not affect the wait status of any other children.

CONFORMING TO
ANSI C, POSIX.1, proposed POSIX.2, BSD 4.3

BUGS

It is extremely unfortunate that the libc version of system() ignores interrupts. This makes programs that call it from a loop uninterruptable. This means that for such purposes one should not use system() but a private version like (warning: untested code!)
int my_system (const char *command) {
    int pid, status;
    if (command == 0)
        return 1;
    pid = fork();
    if (pid == -1)
        return -1;
    if (pid == 0) {
        char *argv[4];
        argv[0] = "sh";
        argv[1] = "-c";
        argv[2] = command;
        argv[3] = 0;
        execve("/bin/sh", argv, environ);
        exit(127);
    }
    do {
        if (waitpid(pid, &status, 0) == -1) {
            if (errno != EINTR)
                return -1;
        } else
            return status;
    } while(1);
}

Do not use system() from a program with suid or sgid privileges, because strange values for some environment variables might be used to subvert system integrity. Use the exec(3) family of functions instead, but not execlp(3) or execvp(3).

The check for the availability of /bin/sh is not actually performed; it is always assumed to be available.

It is possible for the shell command to return 127, so that code is not a sure indication that the execve() call failed; check errno to make sure.

SEE ALSO
sh(1), signal(2), exec(3)