Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: system (and mkdir)
Message-ID: <569@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jan 88 02:22:42 GMT
References: <127@dcrbg1.UUCP> <9472@ccicpg.UUCP> <2771@cbdkc1.ATT.COM> <447@cpsc6b.cpsc6a.att.com>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 13
Keywords: c program
Summary: exec("a shell script")

In article <447@cpsc6b.cpsc6a.att.com>,
crs@cpsc6b.cpsc6a.att.com (Chris (I'm Outta Here!) Seaman) writes that:
>                                  But, if their command is a shell
> script, exec() will fail.  A script must be exec'ed as an argument
> to the appropriate shell (/bin/sh, /bin/csh, /bin/ksh, etc.).

BSD UNIX doesn't have this restriction; that is a System V "feature".
Which is, of course, the point of system(): the fork/exec approach
isn't exactly the same in all versions of UNIX.  system() fits nicely
with popen() too.  {Why isn't there a popen() which gives me *two*
stdio streams, one to each end of the command?}

This is more appropriate for comp.unix.questions.