.TH SYSTEM 3 .SH NAME system \- issue a shell command .SH SYNOPSIS .B system(string) .br .B char *string; .SH DESCRIPTION .I System causes the .I string to be given to .IR sh (1) as input as if the string had been typed as a command at a terminal. The current process waits until the shell has completed, then returns the exit status of the shell. .SH "SEE ALSO" popen(3), exec(2), wait(2) .SH DIAGNOSTICS Exit status 127 indicates the shell couldn't be executed.