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* Ask Question How to call two C programs from within one C program? up vote 1 down vote favorite 1 Please login or register to vote for this post. (click on this box to dismiss) How can I call two C applications from within another C application? e.g. : pg1.c can be run as ./a.out pg1_args pg2.c can be run as ./a.out pg2_args I would like to write a program that can be run as: ./a.out pg1_args pg2_args With the result being equivalent to : ./a.out pg1_args ./a.out pg2_args ./a.out pg1_args ./a.out pg2_args the pg1 here is svm_scale and pg2 here is svm_predict , both taken from libsvm : http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~cjlin/libsvm/ [ edit ] @Jonathan , I wrote these programs for trying out this concept.. pg1.c #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> int main(int argc,char **argv) { FILE *fin;

fin=fopen("pg1file.txt","a"); fprintf(fin,"%s",argv[1]); fflush(fin); fclose(fin); } pg2.c #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> int main(int argc,char **argv) { FILE *fin; fin=fopen("pg2file.txt","a"); fprintf(fin,"%s",argv[1]); fflush(fin); fclose(fin); } pg3.c : #include<stdio.h> #include<string.h> int main(int argc,char **argv) { int i; const char *cmd1 = strcat("./pg1 ",argv[1]); const char *cmd2 = strcat("./pg2 ",argv[2]); for(i=0;i<4;i++) { if (system(cmd1) != 0) printf("\n error executing pg 1"); if (system(cmd2) != 0) printf("\n error executing pg 2"); } } [root@localhost trinity]# ./a.out first second Segmentation fault (core dumped) [root@localhost trinity]# Could somebody explain what I've done wrong? c libsvm link|improve this question edited Mar 29 '10 at 12:13 voyager 11.3k22650 asked Jan 22 '10 at 6:13 trinity 6102622 65% accept rate 2 Why use C for the wrapper? Surely a simple shell script would do fine: while tru e; do pg1 pg1_args; pg2 pg2_args; done William Pursell Jan 22 '10 at 6:39

strcat is writing off the end of your strings, the first argument to strcat need s to point to a space allocated with enough room for the string you're adding to the end. pib Jan 22 '10 at 6:49 feedback 4 Answers active oldest votes up vote 4 down vote accepted From your latest code, here is your problem: const char *cmd1 = strcat("./pg1 ",argv[1]); const char *cmd2 = strcat("./pg2 ",argv[2]); That's bad for a couple of reasons (string literals are usually put in read only memory and they to do not have memory allocated for concatenating new data at t he end). Change that to: size_t len = snprintf(NULL, 0, "./pg1 %s", argv[1]); char *cmd1 = malloc(len + 1); snprintf(cmd1, len, "./pg1 %s", argv[1]); size_t len = snprintf(NULL, 0, "./pg2 %s", argv[2]); char *cmd2 = malloc(len + 1); snprintf(cmd2, len, "./pg2 %s", argv[2]); link|improve this answer answered Jan 22 '10 at 6:46 R Samuel Klatchko 34.2k43380 feedback up vote 4 down vote A very simple solution is to use the system() function. Pass a program's command line to it to run the program. link|improve this answer answered Jan 22 '10 at 6:15 Max Shawabkeh 12.7k11839 feedback up vote 1 down vote Probably the simplest technique is to build the two calls (are the two 'differen t' programs really both called a.out?) as a string and then use the system() fun ction: const char *cmd1 = "./a.out pg1_args"; const char *cmd2 = "./a.out pg2_args";

if (system(cmd1) != 0) ...report trouble... if (system(cmd2) != 0) ...report trouble... Clearly, you would normally build those command lines from the arguments passed to your program, rather than hard-wiring them as shown. Just be wary of buffer o verflows and unexpected characters when you build the command lines. link|improve this answer answered Jan 22 '10 at 6:15 Jonathan Leffler 154k14124287 okay , i'll try this , thanks. trinity Jan 22 '10 at 6:25 @trinity: R Samuel Klatchko shows what I had in mind; I was flying at the wrong time and couldn't provide that answer. In C, it is always crucial to understand where string data is stored. Your code was trying to attach an argument after a constant string - which was in read-only memory, hence leading to the core dump. Jonathan Leffler Jan 22 '10 at 19:09 feedback up vote 1 down vote const char *cmd1 = strcat("./pg1 ",argv[1]); const char *cmd2 = strcat("./pg2 ",argv[2]); is wrong. "./pg1 " is a read-only string. You can't append anything to it. You h aven't got access to the memory after the string "./pg1 " ends anyway. So, you n eed to get access to memory where you can write your strings. Try: char *cmd1 = malloc(strlen("./pg1 ") + strlen(argv[1]) + 1); char *cmd2 = malloc(strlen("./pg2 ") + strlen(argv[2]) + 1); if (cmd1 == NULL || cmd2 == NULL) { /* deal with error */ } sprintf(cmd1, "./pg1 %s", argv[1]); sprintf(cmd1, "./pg1 %s", argv[1]); and then remember to free the memory when you're done. Or you can declare them a s arrays with a big enough size: char cmd1[32] = "./pg1 "; char cmd1[32] = "./pg2 "; strcat(cmd1, argv[1]); strcat(cmd1, argv[2]); but the above will be bad if there is not enough space in cmd1 or cmd2. link|improve this answer answered Jan 22 '10 at 6:50 Alok 19.1k32766 thanks , it s working. trinity Jan 22 '10 at 7:18 feedback

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