.\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\"
.\"	@(#)system.3f	6.1 (Berkeley) 5/15/85
.\"
.TH SYSTEM 3F "May 15, 1985"
.UC 5
.SH NAME
system \- execute a \s-2UNIX\s0 command
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B integer function system (string)
.br
.B character*(*) string
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I System
causes
.I string
to be given to your shell
as input as if the string had been typed as a command.
If environment variable
.B SHELL
is found, its value will be used as the command interpreter (shell);
otherwise
.IR sh (1)
is used.
.PP
The current process waits until the command terminates.
The returned value will be the exit status of the shell.
See
.IR wait (2)
for an explanation of this value.
.SH FILES
.ie \nM /usr/ucb/lib/libU77.a
.el /usr/lib/libU77.a
.SH "SEE ALSO"
exec(2), wait(2), system(3)
.SH BUGS
.I String
can not be longer than NCARGS\-50 characters, as defined in
.RI < sys/param.h >.