C++ – Linux console commands in C++ (gcc compiler)

How do I issue a command from my C++ program to the Linux console (Ubuntu) and assign the value my command tells me to a string variable? Please give me an example where the program gives the simple command “uname -a” to console and write the result.

Sorry my English is not good, I know very little. I would be glad if someone wrote his answer in Russian (if it was allowed). I looked for answers to my questions in Russian resources, but to nothing, you are my last hope.

The command you need is popen. You can get information about it by typing man popen in the shell; If your Linux distribution runs its Russian translation, it should display information about it in Russian.

Basically, popen simply opens a “file” (stream) that you can use just like a regular file. Here are examples of how to use it:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
  FILE *f;
  char stuff[100];
  f = popen("uname -a", "r");
  fgets(stuff, 100, f);
  printf("%s", stuff);
  pclose(f);
}

The code above doesn’t have any error handling; You should insert the appropriate check after reading and understanding the complete manual page ( rus)。