system

Executes an operating system command.

int system( const char *string); 

Return Values

If a command was successfully executed the command interpreter returns an adequate value; generally 0 indicates that the action performed by the command interpreter terminated with no errors.

A return value of -1 indicates an error, and global variable errno is set to one of the following errors:

For system details, refer to your C language documentation.

Example

This example, for the Windows platform, creates a new directory, xyz, and a new file under it, short_lifespan.txt.

The system function executes a dir command. The output of the command is written (using `>') to the newly created file. The content of the file should be a list of the contents of the C drive.

    char filename[1024], command[1024];
    char new_dir[] = "C:\\xyz";

    // Create a directory under root called xyz and make it the current dir 

    if (mkdir(new_dir))
        lr_output_message ("Create directory %s failed", new_dir);
    else
        lr_output_message ("Created new directory %s", new_dir);

    sprintf(filename, "%s\\%s", new_dir, "newfile.txt");

    // Execute a dir /b command and direct it to a new file 

    sprintf(command, "dir /b c:\\ > %s /w", filename);
    system(command);
    lr_output_message ("Created new file %s", filename);

Example: output:
Action.c(10): Created new directory C:\xyz
Action.c(17): Created new file C:\xyz\newfile.txt