system函数是在应用编程里面想调用外部命令时最方便的方式了，除非想要获取命令行执行的输出信息， 那system就不行了，需要用popen。但是system内部具体怎么实现及怎么处理它的返回值经常被忽略，我认为还是得特别注意。
关于system的实现用manpage里面的话：
DESCRIPTION
The system() library function uses fork(2) to create a child process that executes the shell command specified in command using execl(3) as follows:
execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", command, (char *) 0);
system() returns after the command has been completed.
During execution of the command, SIGCHLD will be blocked, and SIGINT and SIGQUIT will be ignored, in the process that calls system() (these signals
will be handled according to their defaults inside the child process that executes command).
If command is NULL, then system() returns a status indicating whether a shell is available on the system
RETURN VALUE
The return value of system() is one of the following:
* If command is NULL, then a nonzero value if a shell is available, or 0 if no shell is available.
* If a child process could not be created, or its status could not be retrieved, the return value is -1.
* If a shell could not be executed in the child process, then the return value is as though the child shell terminated by calling _exit(2) with the
status 127.
* If all system calls succeed, then the return value is the termination status of the child shell used to execute command. (The termination status
of a shell is the termination status of the last command it executes.)
In the last two cases, the return value is a "wait status" that can be examined using the macros described in waitpid(2). (i.e., WIFEXITED() WEXIT‐
STATUS() and so on).
system() does not affect the wait status of any other children.
如果你看过代码后，你就会觉得manpage的描述非常精准。
总体的意思就是说：
它是通过调用/bin/sh -c 来执行你指定的命令， 并且直到命令执行完才返回。在执行命令的过程中， SIGCHLD信号是被屏蔽的， SIGINT和SIGQUIT信号是被忽略的。
需要补充的是关于“SIGCHLD信号是被屏蔽的， SIGINT和SIGQUIT信号是被忽略的”它指的是执行system命令的那个进程， system内部会fort一个进程来执行/bin/sh -c xxx， 那个子进程对于SIGCHLD SIGINT SIGQUIT都是默认的信号处理。
下面贴出glibc-2.19里面system的实现（有点多，我会在关键的地方注释）
glibc-2.19/sysdeps/posix/system.c：
/* Execute LINE as a shell command, returning its status. */
static int
do_system (const char *line)
{
int status, save;
pid_t pid;
struct sigaction sa;
#ifndef _LIBC_REENTRANT
struct sigaction intr, quit;
#endif
sigset_t omask;
sa.sa_handler = SIG_IGN;
sa.sa_flags = 0;
__sigemptyset (&sa.sa_mask);
DO_LOCK ();
if (ADD_REF () == 0)
{
if (__sigaction (SIGINT, &sa, &intr) < 0)//屏蔽sigint
{
(void) SUB_REF ();
goto out;
}
if (__sigaction (SIGQUIT, &sa, &quit) < 0)//屏蔽sigquit
{
save = errno;
(void) SUB_REF ();
goto out_restore_sigint;
}
}
DO_UNLOCK ();
/* We reuse the bitmap in the 'sa' structure. */
__sigaddset (&sa.sa_mask, SIGCHLD);
save = errno;
if (__sigprocmask (SIG_BLOCK, &sa.sa_mask, &omask) < 0)//阻塞sigchld
{
#ifndef _LIBC
if (errno == ENOSYS)
__set_errno (save);
else
#endif
{
DO_LOCK ();
if (SUB_REF () == 0)
{
save = errno;
(void) __sigaction (SIGQUIT, &quit, (struct sigaction *) NULL);
out_restore_sigint:
(void) __sigaction (SIGINT, &intr, (struct sigaction *) NULL);
__set_errno (save);
}
out:
DO_UNLOCK ();
return -1;
}
}
#ifdef CLEANUP_HANDLER
CLEANUP_HANDLER;
#endif
#ifdef FORK
pid = FORK ();
#else
pid = __fork ();//产生子进程
#endif
if (pid == (pid_t) 0)
{
/* Child side. */
const char *new_argv[4];//构建/bin/sh -c命令行
new_argv[0] = SHELL_NAME;
new_argv[1] = "-c";
new_argv[2] = line;
new_argv[3] = NULL;
/* Restore the signals. */
(void) __sigaction (SIGINT, &intr, (struct sigaction *) NULL);//子进程恢复sigint信号处理
(void) __sigaction (SIGQUIT, &quit, (struct sigaction *) NULL);//子进程恢复sigquit信号处理
(void) __sigprocmask (SIG_SETMASK, &omask, (sigset_t *) NULL);//子进程恢复信号屏蔽的处理
INIT_LOCK ();
/* Exec the shell. */
(void) __execve (SHELL_PATH, (char *const *) new_argv, __environ);
_exit (127);//一般不会执行到这里， 如果到这里，说明上面的/bin/sh本身就失败了，那么返回127
}
else if (pid < (pid_t) 0)
/* The fork failed. */
status = -1;
else
/* Parent side. */
{
/* Note the system() is a cancellation point. But since we call
waitpid() which itself is a cancellation point we do not
have to do anything here. *///父进程等待子进程， 从这里看出返回值是和wait的status意义一样
if (TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY (__waitpid (pid, &status, 0)) != pid)
status = -1;
}
#ifdef CLEANUP_HANDLER
CLEANUP_RESET;
#endif
save = errno;
DO_LOCK ();
if ((SUB_REF () == 0
&& (__sigaction (SIGINT, &intr, (struct sigaction *) NULL)
| __sigaction (SIGQUIT, &quit, (struct sigaction *) NULL)) != 0)
|| __sigprocmask (SIG_SETMASK, &omask, (sigset_t *) NULL) != 0)
{
#ifndef _LIBC
/* glibc cannot be used on systems without waitpid. */
if (errno == ENOSYS)
__set_errno (save);
else
#endif
status = -1;
}
DO_UNLOCK ();
return status;
}
int
__libc_system (const char *line)//这是system的原型， 如果具体架构层没有定义system
//， 那么glibc就用__libc_system来当作system
{
if (line == NULL) //这里可以看出， 如果line为NULL， 那么返回0或者1, 具体0还是1就
//如manpage里面那句话所说：If the
//value of command is NULL, system() returns nonzero if the
//shell is available, and zero if not.
/* Check that we have a command processor available. It might
not be available after a chroot(), for example. */
return do_system ("exit 0") == 0;
return do_system (line);//否则， do_system
}
weak_alias (__libc_system, system)
通过上面的分析再看看manpage， 就应该懂的差不多了。
下面总结下system的返回值
- line为NULL 返回0或者1
- line不为NULL， 返回status（status具体多少看命令行的执行效果）
- -1 当fork失败的时候或则waitpid失败的时候一般通过WIFEXITED WIFSIGNALED WIFSTOPPED WIFCONTINUED来分析status和提取退出码或者信号值。
WIFEXITED是根据status的低7位是否为0来判别是否正常推出，
#define __WTERMSIG(status) ((status) & 0x7f)
#define __WIFEXITED(status) (__WTERMSIG(status) == 0)
如果低7位为0, 则是正常推出，否则异常退出。
正常退出的退出码由WEXITSTATUS提取，
#define __WEXITSTATUS(status) (((status) & 0xff00) >> 8)
WIFSIGNALED也是根据status的低7位来决定是否有信号异常发生，
#define __WIFSIGNALED(status) \
(((signed char) (((status) & 0x7f) + 1) >> 1) > 0)
信号值由WTERMSIG提取，
#define __WTERMSIG(status) ((status) & 0x7f)
这样就有问题了， 因为根据返回值1>里面是有可能返回1的，这种情况下会和收到信号且信号值
刚好为1的SIGHUP冲突， 因此我们在使用system的时候最好先判断命令行是否为NULL，也就是
if (!cmd)
return ERR_INVALID_ARGV;
status = system(cmd);
if (status < 0)
return xxx;
else if (WIFEXITED(status)) {
printf("exited, status=%d\n", WEXITSTATUS(status));
} else if (WIFSIGNALED(status)) {
printf("killed by signal %d\n", WTERMSIG(status));
} else if (WIFSTOPPED(status)) {
printf("stopped by signal %d\n", WSTOPSIG(status));
} else if (WIFCONTINUED(status)) {
printf("continued\n");
}
其他的两个信号就暂时不分析了
完！
2014年1月