C Program to Execute Linux Commands

Following program shows how you can run some Linux commands from C program using C library API / system call named “system”. This API accepts a string which should be a command and its arguments which we want to execute on the console using C program.

$ vim run_command_with_system.c 

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
 
#define COMMAND_TO_RUN "ps -ax"
 
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
        printf("Running ps with system\n");
        system(COMMAND_TO_RUN);
        printf("Done.\n");
        return 0;
}

 $ gcc -o run_command_with_system run_command_with_system.c 

 $ ./run_command_with_system 

This program will print the output of command “ps -ax” from C program.. if you want to execute any other command, you can just change it in #define COMMAND_TO_RUN , recompile and execute the program.

Man page of system : “man system”