Execute a system command
In this task, the goal is to run either the ls (dir on Windows) system command, or the pause system command.
![Task](http://static.miraheze.org/rosettacodewiki/thumb/b/ba/Rcode-button-task-crushed.png/64px-Rcode-button-task-crushed.png)
You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.
Ada
<lang ada>with Interfaces.C; use Interfaces.C;
procedure Execute_System is
function Sys (Arg : Char_Array) return Integer; pragma Import(C, Sys, "system"); Ret_Val : Integer;
begin
Ret_Val := Sys(To_C("ls"));
end Execute_System;</lang>
Aikido
The simplest way to do this is using the system()
function. It returns a vector of strings (the output from the command).
<lang aikido>
var lines = system ("ls")
foreach line lines {
println (line)
}
</lang>
If you don't want to process the output you can use the exec
function. It writes the output to the standard output stream by default;
<lang aikido>
exec ("ls")
</lang>
You also have the regular fork
and execv
calls available:
<lang aikido>
var pid = fork()
if (pid == 0) {
var args = ["/bin/ls"] execv ("/bin/ls", args) exit(1)
} var status = 0 waitpid (pid, status)
</lang>
ALGOL 68
<lang algol68>system("ls")</lang>
Or the classic "!" shell escape can be implemented as an "!" operator:
<lang algol68>OP ! = (STRING cmd)BOOL: system(cmd) = 0;
IF ! "touch test.tmp" ANDF ( ! "ls test.tmp" ANDF ! "rm test.tmp" ) THEN
print (("test.tmp now gone!", new line))
FI</lang>
AppleScript
<lang applescript>do shell script "ls" without altering line endings</lang>
AutoHotkey
<lang autohotkey>Run, %comspec% /k dir & pause</lang>
AWK
<lang awk>BEGIN {
system("ls")
}</lang>
BASIC
<lang qbasic>SHELL "dir"</lang>
C
ISO C & POSIX:
<lang c>#include <stdlib.h>
int main() {
system("ls"); return 0;
}</lang>
C++
<lang cpp>system("pause");</lang>
C#
Using Windows / .NET: <lang csharp>using System.Diagnostics;
namespace Execute {
class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Process.Start("cmd.exe", "/c dir"); } }
}</lang>
<lang csharp>using System;
class Execute { static void Main() { System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process(); proc.EnableRaisingEvents=false; proc.StartInfo.FileName="ls"; proc.Start(); } }</lang>
Clojure
<lang lisp>(.. Runtime getRuntime (exec "cmd /C dir"))</lang>
Common Lisp
<lang lisp>(system:call-system "ls")</lang>
<lang lisp>(trivial-shell:shell-command "ls")</lang>
D
Note that this does not return the output of the command, other than the return value. That functionality can be accomplished via a call to shell(). <lang d>std.process.system("ls");</lang>
dc
<lang dc>! ls</lang>
E
<lang e>def ls := makeCommand("ls") ls("-l")
def [results, _, _] := ls.exec(["-l"]) when (results) -> {
def [exitCode, out, err] := results print(out)
} catch problem {
print(`failed to execute ls: $problem`)
}</lang>
Erlang
<lang erlang>os:cmd("ls").</lang>
Factor
<lang factor>"ls" run-process wait-for-process</lang>
Forth
<lang forth>s" ls" system</lang>
Fortran
The SYSTEM subroutine (and function) are a GNU extension. <lang fortran>program SystemTest
call system("ls")
end program SystemTest</lang>
gnuplot
<lang gnuplot>!ls</lang>
Haskell
<lang haskell>import System.Cmd
main = system "ls" </lang>
See also: the System.Process module
HicEst
<lang hicest>SYSTEM(CoMmand='pause') SYSTEM(CoMmand='dir & pause') </lang>
IDL
<lang idl>$ls</lang>
Will execute "ls" with output to the screen.
<lang idl>spawn,"ls",result</lang>
will execute it and store the result in the string array "result".
<lang idl>spawn,"ls",unit=unit</lang>
will execute it asynchronously and direct any output from it into the LUN "unit" from whence it can be read at any (later) time.
Io
<lang io>SystemCall with("ls") run</lang>
J
The system command interface in J is provided by the standard "task" script: <lang j>load'task'
NB. Execute a command and wait for it to complete shell 'dir'
NB. Execute a command but don't wait for it to complete fork 'notepad'
NB. Execute a command and capture its stdout stdout =: shell 'dir'
NB. Execute a command, provide it with stdin, NB. and capture its stdout stdin =: 'blahblahblah' stdout =: stdin spawn 'grep blah'</lang>
Java
<lang java5>import java.util.Scanner; import java.io.*;
public class Program {
public static void main(String[] args) { try { Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /C dir");//Windows command, use "ls -oa" for UNIX Scanner sc = new Scanner(p.getInputStream()); while (sc.hasNext()) System.out.println(sc.nextLine()); } catch (IOException e) { System.out.println(e.getMessage()); } }
}</lang>
There are two ways to run system commands. The simple way, which will hang the JVM (I would be interested in some kind of reason). -- this happens because the the inputStream buffer fills up and blocks until it gets read. Moving your .waitFor after reading the InputStream would fix your issue (as long as your error stream doesn't fill up) <lang java>import java.io.IOException; import java.io.InputStream;
public class MainEntry {
public static void main(String[] args) { executeCmd("ls -oa"); }
private static void executeCmd(String string) { InputStream pipedOut = null; try { Process aProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(string); aProcess.waitFor();
pipedOut = aProcess.getInputStream(); byte buffer[] = new byte[2048]; int read = pipedOut.read(buffer); // Replace following code with your intends processing tools while(read >= 0) { System.out.write(buffer, 0, read); read = pipedOut.read(buffer); } } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (InterruptedException ie) { ie.printStackTrace(); } finally { if(pipedOut != null) { try { pipedOut.close(); } catch (IOException e) { } } } }
}</lang>
And the right way, which uses threading to read the InputStream given by the process. <lang java>import java.io.IOException; import java.io.InputStream;
public class MainEntry {
public static void main(String[] args) { // the command to execute executeCmd("ls -oa"); }
private static void executeCmd(String string) { InputStream pipedOut = null; try { Process aProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(string);
// These two thread shall stop by themself when the process end Thread pipeThread = new Thread(new StreamGobber(aProcess.getInputStream())); Thread errorThread = new Thread(new StreamGobber(aProcess.getErrorStream())); pipeThread.start(); errorThread.start(); aProcess.waitFor(); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (InterruptedException ie) { ie.printStackTrace(); } }
}
//Replace the following thread with your intends reader class StreamGobber implements Runnable {
private InputStream Pipe;
public StreamGobber(InputStream pipe) { if(pipe == null) { throw new NullPointerException("bad pipe"); } Pipe = pipe; }
public void run() { try { byte buffer[] = new byte[2048];
int read = Pipe.read(buffer); while(read >= 0) { System.out.write(buffer, 0, read);
read = Pipe.read(buffer); } } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } finally { if(Pipe != null) { try { Pipe.close(); } catch (IOException e) { } } } }
}</lang>
JavaScript
JavaScript does not have any facilities to interact with the OS. However, host environments can provide this ability.
<lang javascript>var shell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell"); shell.run("cmd /c dir & pause");</lang>
<lang javascript>runCommand("cmd", "/c", "dir", "d:\\"); print("==="); var options = {
// can specify arguments here in the options object args: ["/c", "dir", "d:\\"], // capture stdout to the options.output property output:
}; runCommand("cmd", options); print(options.output);</lang>
Joy
<lang joy>"ls" system.</lang>
Logo
The lines of output of the SHELL command are returned as a list. <lang logo>print first butfirst shell [ls -a] ; ..</lang>
Lua
<lang lua>-- just executing the command os.execute("ls")
-- to execute and capture the output, use io.popen local f = io.popen("ls") -- store the output in a "file" print( f:read("*a") ) -- print out the "file"'s content</lang>
M4
<lang M4>syscmd(ifdef(`__windows__',`dir',`ls'))</lang>
MAXScript
<lang maxscript>dosCommand "pause"</lang>
Make
make can use system command in either definition of variables or in the targets
in definition
<lang make>contents=$(shell cat foo) curdir=`pwd`</lang>
in target
<lang make>mytarget:
cat foo | grep mytext</lang>
MATLAB
To execute system commands in MATLAB, use the "system" keyword.
Sample Usage: <lang MATLAB>>> system('PAUSE')
Press any key to continue . . .
ans =
0
</lang>
Modula-3
This code requires the UNSAFE
keyword because M3toC
deals with C strings (which are pointers), and are implemented in Modula-3 as UNTRACED
, meaning they are not garbage collected, which is why the code calls FreeCopiedS()
.
Also note the EVAL
keyword, which ignores the return value of a function.
<lang modula3>UNSAFE MODULE Exec EXPORTS Main;
IMPORT Unix, M3toC;
VAR command := M3toC.CopyTtoS("ls");
BEGIN
EVAL Unix.system(command); M3toC.FreeCopiedS(command);
END Exec.</lang>
Objective-C
NSTask runs an external process with explicit path and arguments. <lang objc>void runls() {
[[NSTask launchedTaskWithLaunchPath:@"/bin/ls" arguments:[NSArray array]] waitUntilExit];
}</lang> If you need to run a system command, invoke the shell: <lang objc>void runSystemCommand(NSString *cmd) {
[[NSTask launchedTaskWithLaunchPath:@"/bin/sh" arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"-c", cmd, nil]] waitUntilExit];
}</lang> Complete usage example:
<lang objc>#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
void runSystemCommand(NSString *cmd) {
[[NSTask launchedTaskWithLaunchPath:@"/bin/sh" arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"-c", cmd, nil]] waitUntilExit];
}
int main(int argc, const char **argv) {
NSAutoreleasePool *pool;
pool = [NSAutoreleasePool new];
runSystemCommand(@"ls"); [pool release]; return 0;
}</lang> Or use the C method above.
OCaml
Just run the command:
<lang ocaml>Sys.command "ls"</lang>
To capture the output of the command:
<lang ocaml>#load "unix.cma"
let syscall cmd =
let ic, oc = Unix.open_process cmd in let buf = Buffer.create 16 in (try while true do Buffer.add_channel buf ic 1 done with End_of_file -> ()); let _ = Unix.close_process (ic, oc) in (Buffer.contents buf)
let listing = syscall "ls" ;;</lang>
a more complete version which also returns the contents form stderr, and checks the exit-status, and where the environment can be specified:
<lang ocaml>let check_exit_status = function
| Unix.WEXITED 0 -> () | Unix.WEXITED r -> Printf.eprintf "warning: the process terminated with exit code (%d)\n%!" r | Unix.WSIGNALED n -> Printf.eprintf "warning: the process was killed by a signal (number: %d)\n%!" n | Unix.WSTOPPED n -> Printf.eprintf "warning: the process was stopped by a signal (number: %d)\n%!" n
let syscall ?(env=[| |]) cmd =
let ic, oc, ec = Unix.open_process_full cmd env in let buf1 = Buffer.create 96 and buf2 = Buffer.create 48 in (try while true do Buffer.add_channel buf1 ic 1 done with End_of_file -> ()); (try while true do Buffer.add_channel buf2 ec 1 done with End_of_file -> ()); let exit_status = Unix.close_process_full (ic, oc, ec) in check_exit_status exit_status; (Buffer.contents buf1, Buffer.contents buf2)</lang>
val syscall : ?env:string array -> string -> string * string
Octave
<lang octave>system("ls");</lang>
Oz
<lang oz>{OS.system "ls" _}</lang>
A more sophisticated example can be found here.
Perl
<lang perl>my @results = qx(ls);
- runs command and returns its STDOUT as a string
my @results = `ls`;
- ditto, alternative syntax
system "ls";
- runs command and returns its exit status; its STDOUT gets output to our STDOUT
print `ls`;
- The same, but with back quotes
exec "ls";
- replace current process with another</lang>
Also see: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlipc.html#Using-open()-for-IPC http://perldoc.perl.org/IPC/Open3.html
PHP
The first line execute the command and the second line display the output: <lang php>@exec($command,$output); echo nl2br($output);</lang> Note:The '@' is here to prevent error messages to be displayed, 'nl2br' translate '\n' chars to 'br' in HTML.
Other:
$results = `ls`; # runs command and returns its STDOUT as a string system("ls"); # runs command and returns its exit status; its STDOUT gets output to our STDOUT echo `ls`; #The same, but with back quotes
See also: proc_open()
PicoLisp
<lang PicoLisp>(call "ls")</lang>
Pike
<lang pike> int main(){
// This appears to only work in Pike >= 7.8 :( string response = Process.run("ls"); // response is now a map containing 3 fields // stderr, stdout, and exitcode. We want stdout.
write(response["stdout"] + "\n");
}</lang>
Pop11
The sysobey function runs commands using a shell:
<lang pop11>sysobey('ls');</lang>
PowerShell
Since PowerShell is a shell, running commands is the default operation.
<lang powershell>dir
ls
Get-ChildItem</lang>
are all equivalent (the first two are aliases for the third) but they are PowerShell-native commands. If one really needs to execute dir
(which is no program but rather a built-in command in cmd.exe
) this can be achieved by
<lang powershell>cmd /c dir</lang>
Prolog
<lang prolog>shell('ls').</lang>
Python
<lang python>import os code = os.system('ls') # Just execute the command, return a success/fail code output = os.popen('ls').read() # If you want to get the output data. Deprecated.</lang>
or
<lang python>from subprocess import PIPE, Popen, STDOUT p = Popen('ls', stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT) print p.communicate()[0]</lang>
Note: The latter is the preferred method for calling external processes, although cumbersome, it gives you finer control over the process.
or
<lang python>import commands stat, out = commands.getstatusoutput('ls') if not stat:
print out</lang>
R
<lang R>system("ls")</lang>
Raven
Back tick string is auto executed:
<lang raven>`ls -la` as listing</lang>
Or specifically on any string:
<lang raven>'ls -la' shell as listing</lang>
REBOL
<lang REBOL>; Capture output to string variable:
x: "" call/output "dir" x print x
- The 'console' refinement displays the command output on the REBOL command line.
call/console "dir *.r" call/console "ls *.r"
call/console "pause"
- The 'shell' refinement may be necessary to launch some programs.
call/shell "notepad.exe"</lang>
REXX
Since REXX is a shell scripting language, it's easy to execute commands: <lang REXX>"dir /a:d"</lang>
Ruby
<lang ruby>string = `ls`
- runs command and returns its STDOUT as a string
string = %x{ls}
- ditto, alternative syntax
system "ls"
- runs command and returns its exit status; its STDOUT gets output to our STDOUT
print `ls`
- The same, but with back quotes
exec "ls"
- replace current process with another
- call system command and read output asynchronously
io = IO.popen('ls')
- ... later
io.each {|line| puts line}</lang>
Slate
Run a command normally through the shell:
<lang slate>Platform run: 'ls'.</lang>
Run a command (this way takes advantage of the 'does not understand' message for the shell object and calls the Platform run: command above with a specific command):
<lang slate>shell ls: '*.slate'.</lang>
Smalltalk
<lang smalltalk>Smalltalk system: 'ls'.</lang>
Standard ML
Just run the command:
<lang sml>OS.Process.system "ls"</lang>
Tcl
<lang tcl>puts [exec ls]</lang>
This page uses "ls" as the primary example. For what it's worth, Tcl has built-in primitives for retrieving lists of files so one would rarely ever directly exec an ls command.
It is also possible to execute a system command by "open"ing it through a pipe from whence any output of the command can be read at any (later) time. For example:
<lang tcl>set io [open "|ls" r]</lang>
would execute "ls" and pipe the result into the unit "io". From there one could receive it either line by line like this:
<lang tcl>set nextline [gets $io]</lang>
or read the whole shebang in a fell swoop:
<lang tcl>set lsoutput [read $io]</lang>
If the command is opened "rw", it is even possible to send it user input through the same handle, though care must be taken with buffering in that case.
Toka
<lang toka>needs shell " ls" system</lang>
UNIX Shell
UNIX shells are designed to run system commands as a default operation. <lang bash>ls</lang> If one wants to capture the command's standard output: <lang bash>CAPTUREDOUTPUT=$(ls)</lang>
In C-Shell this can be achieved by <lang bash>set MYCMDOUTPUT = `ls` echo $MYCMDOUTPUT</lang>
Where as in Korn Shell it becomes: <lang bash>MYCMDOUTPUT=`ls` echo $MYCMDOUTPUT</lang>
Note: in these last cases, C-Shell and Korn Shell, these are "backticks" rather than quotes or apostrophes. These "backticks" can also be used in Bourne compatible shells, though the $(...) form is preferred when discussing such things in e-mail, on USENET, or in other online forums (such as this wiki). Also the $(...) form of command substitution is nestable.
If one wishes to replace the shell process with some other command (chain into some command with no return) one can use the exec shell built-in command in any of the common UNIX shells (C-Shell, and all of the Bourne-compatible shells).
<lang bash>exec ls</lang>
Ursala
The library function, ask, parameterized by a shell descriptor, such as bash, spawns a process that interacts with that shell by feeding it a list of commands, and returns a transcript of the interaction.
Note that the output from the spawned process is captured and returned only, not sent to the standard output stream of the parent.
Here is a self-contained command line application providing a limited replacement for the ls command. <lang Ursala>#import std
- import cli
- executable ('parameterized',)
myls = <.file$[contents: --<>]>@hm+ (ask bash)/0+ -[ls --color=no]-!</lang> The color option is needed to suppress terminal escape sequences.
Visual Basic
Shelling out a sub task in Visual Basic is rather a pain if you need to wait for the task to complete, which is probably the usual case. But it is possible. <lang vb>Attribute VB_Name = "mdlShellAndWait" Option Explicit
Private Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "kernel32" _
(ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, _ ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetExitCodeProcess Lib "kernel32" _
(ByVal hProcess As Long, lpExitCode As Long) As Long
Private Const STATUS_PENDING = &H103& Private Const PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION = &H400
' ' Little function go get exit code given processId ' Function ProcessIsRunning( processId as Long ) as Boolean
Dim exitCode as Long Call GetExitCodeProcess(lProcessId, exitCode) ProcessIsRunning = (exitCode = STATUS_PENDING)
End Function
' Spawn subprocess and wait for it to complete. ' I believe that the command in the command line must be an exe or a bat file. ' Maybe, however, it can reference any file the system knows how to "Open" ' ' commandLine is an executable. ' expectedDuration - is for poping up a dialog for whatever ' infoText - text for progressDialog dialog
Public Function ShellAndWait( commandLine As String, _
expectedDuration As Integer ) As Boolean Dim inst As Long Dim startTime As Long Dim expirationTime As Long Dim pid As Long Dim expiresSameDay As Boolean On Error GoTo HandleError
'Deal with timeout being reset at Midnight ($hitForBrains VB folks) startTime = CLng(Timer) expirationTime = startTime + expectedDuration expiresSameDay = expirationTime < 86400 If Not expiresSameDay Then expirationTime = expirationTime - 86400 End If
inst = Shell(commandLine, vbMinimizedNoFocus) If inst <> 0 Then pid = OpenProcess(PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION, False, inst)
Do While ProcessIsRunning( pid) DoEvents If Timer > expirationTime And (expiresSameDay Or Timer < startTime) Then Exit Do End If Loop ShellAndWait = True Else MsgBox ("Couldn't execute command: " & commandLine) ShellAndWait = False End If Exit Function
HandleError:
MsgBox ("Couldn't execute command: " & commandLine) ShellAndWait = False
End Function
Sub SpawnDir()
ShellAndWait("dir", 10)
End Sub</lang>