NAME execve - execute program SYNOPSIS #include int execve (const char *filename, const char *argv [], const char *envp[]); DESCRIPTION execve() executes the program pointed to by filename. filename must be either a binary executable, or a shell script starting with a line of the form "#! interpreter [arg]". execve() does not return on success, and the text, data, bss, and stack of the calling process are overwritten by that of the program loaded. The program invoked inherits the calling process's PID, and any open file descriptors that are not set to close on exec. Signals pending on the parent process are cleared. If the current program is being ptraced, a SIGTRAP is sent to it after a successful execve(). RETURN VALUE On success, execve() does not return, on error -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately. ERRORS EACCES The file is not a regular file. EACCES Execute permission is denied for the file. EPERM The file system is mounted noexec. EPERM The file system is mounted nosuid and the file has an SUID or SGID bit set. E2BIG The argument list is too big. ENOEXEC The magic number in the file is incorrect. EFAULT filename points outside your accessible address space. ENAMETOOLONG filename is too long. ENOENT The file does not exist. ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available. ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory. EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix. ELOOP filename contains a circular reference (i.e., via a symbolic link) CONFORMING TO SVID, AT&T, POSIX, X/OPEN, BSD 4.3 NOTES SUID and SGID processes can not be ptrace()'d SUID or SGID. A maximum line length of 127 characters is allowed for the first line in a #! executable shell script. This may be circumvented by changing the max size of buf, in which case you will become bound by the 1024 byte size of a buffer, which is not easily worked around. SEE ALSO execl(3), fork(2)