From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,8be452774bba3c5f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: kst@sd.aonix.com (Keith Thompson) Subject: Re: Need help re: System Calls Date: 1997/04/14 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 234905972 Sender: news@thomsoft.com (USENET News Admin @flash) X-Nntp-Posting-Host: pulsar References: <1997Apr12.220404.1@eisner> Organization: Aonix, San Diego, CA, USA Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Originator: kst@pulsar Date: 1997-04-14T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In <1997Apr12.220404.1@eisner> kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen) writes: [...] > I understood "spawn" from this discussion to provide access to a CLI, > but what is valid from that point on certainly varies between > operating systems, and as I understand it, even between Unix > variants. In general it would seem that portability of access > to "system" capabilities is not helpful between domains where > those capabilities are not identical. By the way, the system() function is part of the ISO C standard, so it's very likely that you can use the features of Annex B to invoke it in a nearly portable manner if there's a C library available on your system. Here's the definition (typos mine): 7.10.4.5 The system function Synopsis #include int system(const char *string); Description The system function passes the string pointed to by string to the host environment to be executed by a command processor in an implementation-defined manner. A null pointer may be used for string to inquire whether a command processor exists. Returns If the argument is a null pointer, the system function returns nonzero only if a command processor is available. If the argument is not a null pointer, the system function returns an implementation-defined value. Of course, the interpretation of the parameter is entirely implementation-defined. On a Unix or Unix-like system, it's typically passed to some version of the Bourne shell (/bin/sh). -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst@sd.aonix.com <*> TeleSo^H^H^H^H^H^H Alsy^H^H^H^H Thomson Softw^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Aonix 5040 Shoreham Place, San Diego, CA, USA, 92122-5989 "Humor is such a subjective thing." -- Cartagia