Execfunction

Temporarily transfers execution to an external program

Operating System Functionsfunctiondocumented

Syntax

Declare Function Exec ( ByRef program As Const String, ByRef arguments As Const String ) As Long

Parameters

Name		Description
`program`		The file name (including file path) of the program (executable) to transfer control to.
`arguments`		The command-line arguments to be passed to the program.

Return value

The exit status of the program, or negative one (-1) if the program could not be executed.

Description

Transfers control over to an external program. When the program exits, execution resumes immediately after the call to Exec.

Remarks

Usage



result = Exec( program, arguments )

Platform Differences

Linux requires the program case matches the real name of the file. Windows and DOS are case insensitive. The program being executed may be case sensitive for its command line parameters.
Path separators in Linux are forward slashes / . Windows uses backward slashes \ but it allows for forward slashes . DOS uses backward \ slashes.
Exit code is limited to 8 bits in DOS.

Dialect Differences

Not available in the -lang qb dialect unless referenced with the alias __Exec.

Differences from QB

New to FreeBASIC

Example

'A Windows based example but the same idea applies to Linux

Const exename = "NoSuchProgram.exe"

Const cmdline = "arg1 arg2 arg3"

Dim result As Long

result = Exec( exename, cmdline )

If result = -1 Then

    Print "Error running "; exename

Else

    Print "Exit code:"; result

End If

Reference

Documented in KeyPgExec.html