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From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Using csh commands within the system() function call
Keywords: csh sh system
Message-ID: <1990Jan15.040815.19847@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 90 04:08:15 GMT
References: <1990Jan13.213312.6620@virtech.uucp> <239@tnl.UUCP>
Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system)
Reply-To: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 26

In article <1990Jan13.213312.6620@virtech.uucp>, cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P.
Cahill) writes:
> In article <239@tnl.UUCP>, saf@tnl.UUCP (friedman scott) writes:
> > I wish to use a system command that works under csh but not under sh within
> > a system() function call in a C program.  The line looks something
like this:
> > 
> >    system("command_that_generates_errors >& /dev/null");
> 
> [suggests modifying the command to work under sh, or forking and execing the
>  process without using system, or writing a new system function to use csh]

  Or, you could just use the easiest solution, which is to tell /bin/sh
to use /bin/csh when parsing the command:

    system("/bin/csh -fc 'command_which_generates_errors >& /dev/null'");

(Yes, I know that if the /bin/csh which is executed prints out an error,
then it will be printed in the calling process.  I don't consider that
such a bad thing, given that if the shell has to print out an error then
there is something very wrong....)

Jonathan Kamens			              USnail:
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