NAME
execl, execv, execle, execlp, execvp - execute a file

SYNOPSIS
execl(name, arg0, arg1, ..., argn, 0)
const char *name, *arg0, *arg1, ...,

execv(name, argv)
const char *name;
char * const *argv;

execle(name, arg0, arg1, ..., argn, 0, envp)
const char *name, *arg0, *arg1, ..., *argn;
char * const *envp;

exect(name, argv, envp)
char * const *argv;
char * const *envp;

extern char **environ;

DESCRIPTION
These routines provide various interfaces to the execve system
call. Refer to execve(2) for a description of their properties;
only brief descriptions are provided here.

Exec in all its forms overlays the calling process with the named
file, then transfers to the entry point of the core image of the
file. There can be no return from a successful exec; the calling
core image is lost.

The name argument is a pointer to the name of the file to be
executed. The pointers arg[0], arg[1] ... address null-terminated
strings. Conventionally arg[0] is the name of the file.

Two interfaces are available. execl is useful when a known file
with known arguments is being called; the arguments to execl are
the character strings constituting the file and the arguments; the
first argument is conventionally the same as the file name (or its
last component). A 0 argument must end the argument list.

The execv version is useful when the number of arguments is unknown
in advance; the arguments to execv are the name of the file to be
executed and a vector of strings containing the arguments. The
last argument string must be followed by a 0 pointer.

When a C program is executed, it is called as follows:

main(argc, argv, envp)
int argc;
char **argv, **envp;

where argc is the argument count and argv is an array of character
pointers to the arguments themselves. As indicated, argc is
conventionally at least one and the first member of the array
points to a string containing the name of the file.

Argv is directly usable in another execv because argv[argc] is 0.

Envp is a pointer to an array of strings that constitute the
environment of the process. Each string consists of a name, an
"=", and a null-terminated value. The array of pointers is
terminated by a null pointer. The shell sh(1) passes an
environment entry for each global shell variable defined when the
program is called. See environ(7) for some conventionally used
names. The C run-time start-off routine places a copy of envp in
the global cell environ, which is used by execv and execl to pass
the environment to any subprograms executed by the current program.

Execlp and execvp are called with the same arguments as execl and
execv, but duplicate the shell’s actions in searching for an
executable file in a list of directories. The directory list is
obtained from the environment variable PATH.

FILES
/bin/sh shell, invoked if command file found by execlp or execvp

SEE ALSO
execve(2), fork(2), environ(7), csh(1)

DIAGNOSTICS
If the file cannot be found, if it is not executable, if it does
not start with a valid magic number (see a.out(5)), if maximum
memory is exceeded, or if the arguments require too much space, a
return constitutes the diagnostic; the return value is -1. Even
for the super-user, at least one of the execute-permission bits
must be set for a file to be executed.

BUGS
If execvp is called to execute a file that turns out to be a shell
command file, and if it is impossible to execute the shell, the
values of argv[0] and argv[-1] will be modified before return.