• system(3) (was: Re: Experimental C Build System)

    From vallor@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Thu Feb 1 08:15:52 2024
    On Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:00:58 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro
    <[email protected]d> wrote in <upejfa$1nil8$[email protected]>:

    On Wed, 31 Jan 2024 15:13:20 GMT, Scott Lurndal wrote:

    ... and the simulator 'help' command will call system("man
    ${INSTALL_LOC}/man/topic.man")

    Agh! Why do people feel the need to go through a shell where a shell is
    not needed?

    In my case: it wasn't so much of a "need" -- more of a "want". :)

    Generally, I'd agree with you; but let's say Programmer Joe decides to
    change his path to run his own special version of make(1). (Maybe he's on
    an ancient SunOS system with gnu make in (say) /opt/gnu/bin. You know --
    weird Unix stuff.)

    So who are we to decide "no gnus allowed"?

    Okay, maybe that's a weak example -- but
    yes, I wouldn't use system(3) in any program
    that needs to be very specific about what it passes
    on to its children. (I wouldn't -- but someone else might.)

    --
    -v

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