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 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 file name asso-
     ciated with the file being executed.  The list of  arguments
     must be terminated by a NULL pointer.

     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  con-
     vention,  should  point to the file name associated with the
     file begin executed.  The array of  pointers  must  be  ter-
     minated by a NULL pointer.

     The execle function also specifies the  environment  of  the
     executed  process  by  following  the NULL pointer that ter-
     minates 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 pro-
     cess.


     Some of these functions have special semantics.

     The functions execlp and execvp will duplicate  the  actions
     of  the  shell  in  searching  for an executable file if the
     specified file name 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, cer-
     tain errors are treated specially.

     If permission is denied for a  file  (the  attempted  execve
     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  returned  ENOEXEC), these functions will execute the
     shell with the path of the file as its first argument.   (If
     this attempt fails, no further searching is done.)

RETURN VALUES

     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.

FILES

     /bin/sh

ERRORS

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

SEE ALSO

     sh(1), execve(2), fork(2), environ(5), ptrace(2)

COMPATIBILITY

     On some other systems the default PATH has the current work-
     ing  directory  listed  after /bin and /usr/bin, as an anti-
     Trojan-horse measure. As of libc 5.4.7, Linux still uses 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.

STANDARDS

     Execl, execv, execle, execlp  and  execvp  conform  to  IEEE
     Std1003.1-88 (``POSIX.1'').