Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!sun-spots-request
From: rmaddale@lodestar.gb.nrao.edu ( RON MADDALENA  )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Possible bug in Sun 4 FORTRAN I/O system
Keywords: Miscellaneous
Message-ID: <5405@brazos.Rice.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 90 15:08:53 GMT
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Organization: Sun-Spots
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X-Refs:  Original: v9n62
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 66, message 3

I've never yet saw a UNIX system in which a Fortran SYSTEM call did not do
something wrong!!  In almost all cases it has been some bizarre
interaction between Fortran I/O and SYSTEM.  The 'fix' I've come up with,
which works in almost all cases, is to call a c-routine (given below)
which does the actual SYSTEM call (i.e., I cheat).  

     int csystem_(string, len)    /* Does a SYSTEM call */

     char *string[];
     int len;
     {
           return(system(string));  
     }

Basically, just replace the word SYSTEM with CSYSTEM in your calling
program, compile it and the c-routine CSYSTEM, and link the two. 

Note, however, that the return code generated by CSYSTEM becomes corrupted
when you run your program in some Sunwindow environments like GFXTOOL --
in GFXTOOL, the return code is ALWAYS a -1, regardless of whether the
SYSTEM call succedded or not.  In CMNDTOOL or SHELLTOOL, the return code
is always correct.  Therefore, until someone comes up with a 'fix' to this
different bug, one should not, to be on the safe side, test or care about
the return code.

Ronald J. Maddalena <rmaddale@nrao.edu>
National Radio Astronomy Observatory