system

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

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

Parameters

Return value

Implementation-defined value. If command is a null pointer, returns a nonzero value if and only if the command processor exists.

Notes

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

The 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 date +%A:

#include <stdlib.h>
 
int main(void) {
    system("date +%A");
}

Wednesday

References