System call return value in C

Question

I am using system function in C code to invoke cp command. I want to know whether it got executed successfully or not?

Answer 1

Use system() function. It returns the status of command executed. If this is 0, then it would seem this is successfull.

Answer 2

Should be enought to check the return value of system call.

From man system on Mac:

The system() function returns the exit status of the shell as returned by waitpid(2), or -1 if an error occurred when invoking fork(2) or waitpid(2). A return value of 127 means the execution of the shell failed.