system function not executed correctly

[Anonymous User]

When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is not
executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is with
it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

Regards,
Li Zhou

[Morris Dovey]

Li Zhou wrote:

>
When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is not
executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is with
it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

Can you post a minimal program that exhibits the problem
behavior, please?

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto

[santosh]

Anonymous User wrote:

When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is
with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

Can you show us the code?

[Anonymous User]

santosh wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is
with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

Can you show us the code?

if ( system() ) /* see if a shell exists */
{
int return_code = system("echo hello");
std::cout << "return code " << return_code << std::endl;
}

result is:

return code 11

and repeated lines of:

semop lock failure invalid argument
semop unlock failure invalid argument

[Richard Heathfield]

Anonymous User said:

santosh wrote:

>Anonymous User wrote:

>>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is
with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

Can you show us the code?

if ( system() ) /* see if a shell exists */

That should be:

if ( system(NULL) ) /* see if a shell exists */

{
int return_code = system("echo hello");

That's fine, but there are one and a half reasons why it isn't doing what
you expect. Firstly, the command (*almost* certainly) is being executed,
but a shell is being created for the purpose, the echo is happening within
that shell, and the shell is then terminating - all too fast for you to
even notice (and there's no requirement on the shell, as far as I know, to
provide a visible terminal session, although on some systems it actually
will do that).

One-and-a-halfthly, and this is more of a heads-up in your case than an
actual problem, the return value is not necessarily the one that the
command returns (alas!), but an implementation-defined value. On my
system, however, the docs say that "The value returned is -1 on error
(e.g. fork failed), and the return status of the command otherwise." ISO C
doesn't guarantee this, but perhaps your implementation does.

std::cout << "return code " << return_code << std::endl;

This, however, will not compile. It's stuffed full with errors.

--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
Email: -http://www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999

[Mark Bluemel]

Anonymous User wrote:

santosh wrote:

>Anonymous User wrote:

>>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is
with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

But not C - the code you've shown us is C++

>>
Can you show us the code?

if ( system() ) /* see if a shell exists */

That should be "system(NULL)" according to my man pages and compiler

{
int return_code = system("echo hello");
std::cout << "return code " << return_code << std::endl;
}

result is:

return code 11

and repeated lines of:

semop lock failure invalid argument
semop unlock failure invalid argument

I think you'd do better a) in a C++ group or b) in a forum relating to
the GNU tools you're using. The semop warning messages suggest there's
something awry in your installation, I'd guess.

The code below (which is in C, as far as I can tell :-) works for me
and returns 0 from the second call to system().

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
if (system(NULL)) {
int result = system("echo hello world");
printf("Got %d\n",result);
}
}

[Richard Tobin]

In article <fq**********@news.yaako.com>,
Anonymous User <no****@localhost.comwrote:

>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is not
executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is with
it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

That usually indicates a segmentation fault in the called command.
It seems unlikely that you would get this for every command, so
you'll have to show us your exact program.

-- Richard
--
:wq

[Joachim Schmitz]

Richard Tobin wrote:

In article <fq**********@news.yaako.com>,
Anonymous User <no****@localhost.comwrote:

>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what
is with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

That usually indicates a segmentation fault in the called command.

You may be confusing signal 11, SISSEGV, with exit(11)

It seems unlikely that you would get this for every command, so
you'll have to show us your exact program.

-- Richard

>wq

Bye, Jojo

[Anonymous User]

Richard Heathfield wrote:

Anonymous User said:

>santosh wrote:

>>Anonymous User wrote:

When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is
with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.
Can you show us the code?

if ( system() ) /* see if a shell exists */

That should be:

if ( system(NULL) ) /* see if a shell exists */

yeah, otherwise it won't compile.

>{
int return_code = system("echo hello");

That's fine, but there are one and a half reasons why it isn't doing what
you expect. Firstly, the command (*almost* certainly) is being executed,
but a shell is being created for the purpose, the echo is happening within
that shell, and the shell is then terminating - all too fast for you to
even notice (and there's no requirement on the shell, as far as I know, to
provide a visible terminal session, although on some systems it actually
will do that).

Hmmm, that echo command was just an example. The real command is to
print something on the printer. When i issue the printing command from
the shell everything works as expected but when used inside system()
nothing happened.

>
One-and-a-halfthly, and this is more of a heads-up in your case than an
actual problem, the return value is not necessarily the one that the
command returns (alas!), but an implementation-defined value. On my
system, however, the docs say that "The value returned is -1 on error
(e.g. fork failed), and the return status of the command otherwise." ISO C
doesn't guarantee this, but perhaps your implementation does.

> std::cout << "return code " << return_code << std::endl;

This, however, will not compile. It's stuffed full with errors.

This is some c++ code for debugging.

[Richard Tobin]

In article <fq**********@online.de>,
Joachim Schmitz <jo**@schmitz-digital.dewrote:

>>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what
is with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

>That usually indicates a segmentation fault in the called command.

>You may be confusing signal 11, SISSEGV, with exit(11)

No. Under Linux, the return code from system() is the signal number
if the program dies from a signal. If the command exited with status
11, system() would return 11*256.

-- Richard
--
:wq

[Joachim Schmitz]

Richard Tobin wrote:

In article <fq**********@online.de>,
Joachim Schmitz <jo**@schmitz-digital.dewrote:

>>>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what
is with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

>>That usually indicates a segmentation fault in the called command.

>You may be confusing signal 11, SISSEGV, with exit(11)

No. Under Linux, the return code from system() is the signal number
if the program dies from a signal. If the command exited with status
11, system() would return 11*256.

Right, sorry, didn't read the man-page properly

int status = system("whatever")
if ( status = -1)
perror("system()");
else if WISIGNALED(status)
fprintf(stderr, "killed by signal %d\n", WTERMSIG(status));
else if WIFEXITED(status)
if (WEXITSTATUS(status))
fprintf(stderr, "exited with\n", WEXITSTATUS(status));
else
printf("all is well!\n");
....

Bye, Jojo

[Richard]

"Joachim Schmitz" <no*********@schmitz-digital.dewrites:

Richard Tobin wrote:

>In article <fq**********@online.de>,
Joachim Schmitz <jo**@schmitz-digital.dewrote:

>>>>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what
is with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

>>>That usually indicates a segmentation fault in the called command.

>>You may be confusing signal 11, SISSEGV, with exit(11)

No. Under Linux, the return code from system() is the signal number
if the program dies from a signal. If the command exited with status
11, system() would return 11*256.

Right, sorry, didn't read the man-page properly

int status = system("whatever")
if ( status = -1)
perror("system()");

You might want to use a debugger on your code and examine the condition
above very closely. Hint : keep an eye on "status".

else if WISIGNALED(status)
fprintf(stderr, "killed by signal %d\n", WTERMSIG(status));
else if WIFEXITED(status)
if (WEXITSTATUS(status))
fprintf(stderr, "exited with\n", WEXITSTATUS(status));
else
printf("all is well!\n");
...

Bye, Jojo

[Anonymous User]

Mark Bluemel wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

>santosh wrote:

>>Anonymous User wrote:

When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command is
not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know what is
with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

But not C - the code you've shown us is C++

>>>
Can you show us the code?

if ( system() ) /* see if a shell exists */

That should be "system(NULL)" according to my man pages and compiler

>{
int return_code = system("echo hello");
std::cout << "return code " << return_code << std::endl;
}

result is:

return code 11

and repeated lines of:

semop lock failure invalid argument
semop unlock failure invalid argument

I think you'd do better a) in a C++ group or b) in a forum relating to
the GNU tools you're using. The semop warning messages suggest there's
something awry in your installation, I'd guess.

The code below (which is in C, as far as I can tell :-) works for me
and returns 0 from the second call to system().

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
if (system(NULL)) {
int result = system("echo hello world");
printf("Got %d\n",result);
}
}

Yeap, your code works even on Cygwin.

[Joachim Schmitz]

Richard wrote:

"Joachim Schmitz" <no*********@schmitz-digital.dewrites:

>Richard Tobin wrote:

>>In article <fq**********@online.de>,
Joachim Schmitz <jo**@schmitz-digital.dewrote:

>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command
>is not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know
>what is with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

That usually indicates a segmentation fault in the called command.

You may be confusing signal 11, SISSEGV, with exit(11)

No. Under Linux, the return code from system() is the signal number
if the program dies from a signal. If the command exited with
status 11, system() would return 11*256.

Right, sorry, didn't read the man-page properly

int status = system("whatever")
if ( status = -1)
perror("system()");

You might want to use a debugger on your code and examine the
condition above very closely. Hint : keep an eye on "status".

No debugger needed, it should be status == -1.

>else if WISIGNALED(status)
fprintf(stderr, "killed by signal %d\n", WTERMSIG(status));
else if WIFEXITED(status)
if (WEXITSTATUS(status))
fprintf(stderr, "exited with\n", WEXITSTATUS(status));

and here's a %s missing...

> else
printf("all is well!\n");
...

Bye, Jojo

[Joachim Schmitz]

Joachim Schmitz wrote:

Richard wrote:

>"Joachim Schmitz" <no*********@schmitz-digital.dewrites:

>>Richard Tobin wrote:
In article <fq**********@online.de>,
Joachim Schmitz <jo**@schmitz-digital.dewrote:

>>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command
>>is not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know
>>what is with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

>That usually indicates a segmentation fault in the called
>command.

You may be confusing signal 11, SISSEGV, with exit(11)

No. Under Linux, the return code from system() is the signal
number if the program dies from a signal. If the command exited
with status 11, system() would return 11*256.
Right, sorry, didn't read the man-page properly

int status = system("whatever")
if ( status = -1)
perror("system()");

You might want to use a debugger on your code and examine the
condition above very closely. Hint : keep an eye on "status".

No debugger needed, it should be status == -1.

>>else if WISIGNALED(status)
fprintf(stderr, "killed by signal %d\n", WTERMSIG(status));
else if WIFEXITED(status)
if (WEXITSTATUS(status))
fprintf(stderr, "exited with\n", WEXITSTATUS(status));

and here's a %s missing...

Rubbish, %d. It's been a long day...

>

>> else
printf("all is well!\n");
...

Bye, Jojo

[Richard]

"Joachim Schmitz" <no*********@schmitz-digital.dewrites:

Richard wrote:

>"Joachim Schmitz" <no*********@schmitz-digital.dewrites:

>>Richard Tobin wrote:
In article <fq**********@online.de>,
Joachim Schmitz <jo**@schmitz-digital.dewrote:

>>When i use system() it always get return code 11 and the command
>>is not executed regardless of the command used. Does anyone know
>>what is with it? Environment is Linux, glibc and gcc.

>That usually indicates a segmentation fault in the called command.

You may be confusing signal 11, SISSEGV, with exit(11)

No. Under Linux, the return code from system() is the signal number
if the program dies from a signal. If the command exited with
status 11, system() would return 11*256.
Right, sorry, didn't read the man-page properly

int status = system("whatever")
if ( status = -1)
perror("system()");

You might want to use a debugger on your code and examine the
condition above very closely. Hint : keep an eye on "status".

No debugger needed, it should be status == -1.

There are many people in CLC who think debuggers are evil. Having worked
on numerous huge multi team projects I think their view is distorted to
say the least. We are not all Linus Torwalds.

I run ALL my code through a debugger watching the locals and parameter
panels as I step through for any unexpected blinks to occur.

This would have immediately alerted you to the change in status.

So my point was more "use a debugger" than "in this case". Well, it was
intended to be.

Littering code with printfs in amateurish at best unless there is no
good HW debugger for your platform.

Read this and good luck!

http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matlo....html#tth_sEc2

[Kenneth Brody]

Anonymous User wrote:
[...]

int return_code = system("echo hello");

That's fine, but there are one and a half reasons why it isn't doing what
you expect. Firstly, the command (*almost* certainly) is being executed,
but a shell is being created for the purpose, the echo is happening within
that shell, and the shell is then terminating - all too fast for you to
even notice (and there's no requirement on the shell, as far as I know, to
provide a visible terminal session, although on some systems it actually
will do that).

Hmmm, that echo command was just an example. The real command is to
print something on the printer. When i issue the printing command from
the shell everything works as expected but when used inside system()
nothing happened.

[...]

Does the system("echo hello") also return 11? (If not, then why
post code that doesn't fail?)

See Richard Tobin's reply elsethread regarding SEGV crashes.

--
+-------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------+
| Kenneth J. Brody | www.hvcomputer.com | #include |
| kenbrody/at\spamcop.net | www.fptech.com | <std_disclaimer.h|
+-------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------+
Don't e-mail me at: <mailto:Th*************@gmail.com>