Name

execl, execlp, execle, execv, execvp — execute a file

Synopsis

#include <unistd.h>

extern char **environ;
int execl( const char *  path,
  const char *  arg,
    ...);
int execlp( const char *  file,
  const char *  arg,
    ...);
int execle( const char *  path,
  const char *  arg,
    ...,
  char * const   envp[]);
int execv( const char *  path,
  char *const   argv[]);
int execvp( const char *  file,
  char *const   argv[]);

DESCRIPTION

The exec() family of functions replaces the current process image with a new process image. The functions described in this manual page are front-ends for the function execve(2). (See the manual page for execve(2) for detailed information about the replacement of the current process.)

The initial argument for these functions is the pathname of a file which is to be executed.

The const char *arg and subsequent ellipses in the execl(), execlp(), and execle() functions can be thought of as arg0, arg1, ..., argn. Together they describe a list of one or more pointers to null-terminated strings that represent the argument list available to the executed program. The first argument, by convention, should point to the filename associated with the file being executed. The list of arguments must be terminated by a NULL pointer, and, since these are variadic functions, this pointer must be cast (char *) NULL.

The execv() and execvp() functions provide an array of pointers to null-terminated strings that represent the argument list available to the new program. The first argument, by convention, should point to the filename associated with the file being executed. The array of pointers must be terminated by a NULL pointer.

The execle() function also specifies the environment of the executed process by following the NULL pointer that terminates the list of arguments in the parameter list or the pointer to the argv array with an additional parameter. This additional parameter is an array of pointers to null-terminated strings and must be terminated by a NULL pointer. The other functions take the environment for the new process image from the external variable environ in the current process.

Special semantics for execlp() and execvp()

The functions execlp() and execvp() will duplicate the actions of the shell in searching for an executable file if the specified filename does not contain a slash (/) character. The search path is the path specified in the environment by the PATH variable. If this variable isn't specified, the default path ":/bin:/usr/bin" is used. In addition, certain errors are treated specially.

If permission is denied for a file (the attempted execve(2) returned EACCES), these functions will continue searching the rest of the search path. If no other file is found, however, they will return with the global variable errno set to EACCES.

If the header of a file isn't recognized (the attempted execve(2) returned ENOEXEC), these functions will execute the shell (/bin/sh) with the path of the file as its first argument. (If this attempt fails, no further searching is done.)

RETURN VALUE

If any of the exec() functions returns, an error will have occurred. The return value is −1, and the global variable errno will be set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

All of these functions may fail and set errno for any of the errors specified for the library function execve(2).

CONFORMING TO

POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES

On some other systems the default path (used when the environment does not contain the variable PATH) has the current working directory listed after /bin and /usr/bin, as an anti-Trojan-horse measure. Linux uses here the traditional "current directory first" default path.

The behavior of execlp() and execvp() when errors occur while attempting to execute the file is historic practice, but has not traditionally been documented and is not specified by the POSIX standard. BSD (and possibly other systems) do an automatic sleep and retry if ETXTBSY is encountered. Linux treats it as a hard error and returns immediately.

Traditionally, the functions execlp() and execvp() ignored all errors except for the ones described above and ENOMEM and E2BIG, upon which they returned. They now return if any error other than the ones described above occurs.

SEE ALSO

sh(1), execve(2), fork(2), ptrace(2), fexecve(3), environ(7)

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 2.79 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.


  Copyright (c) 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
   must display the following acknowledgement:
This product includes software developed by the University of
California, Berkeley and its contributors.
4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
   may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
   without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.

    (#)exec.3 6.4 (Berkeley) 4/19/91

Converted for Linux, Mon Nov 29 11:12:48 1993, faithcs.unc.edu
Updated more for Linux, Tue Jul 15 11:54:18 1997, pacmancqc.com
Modified, 24 Jun 2004, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpagesgmail.com>
    Added note on casting NULL