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EXECVE(2)                  Linux Programmer's Manual                 EXECVE(2)




NAME

       execve - execute program


SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int execve(const char *filename, char *const argv[],
                  char *const envp[]);


DESCRIPTION

       execve() executes the program pointed to by filename.  filename must be
       either a binary executable, or a script starting with  a  line  of  the
       form  "#! interpreter [arg]".  In the latter case, the interpreter must
       be a valid pathname for an executable which is  not  itself  a  script,
       which will be invoked as interpreter [arg] filename.

       argv  is  an array of argument strings passed to the new program.  envp
       is an array of strings, conventionally of the form key=value, which are
       passed  as  environment to the new program.  Both argv and envp must be
       terminated by a null pointer.  The argument vector and environment  can
       be  accessed  by the called program's main function, when it is defined
       as int main(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[]).

       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 calling process are cleared.  Any signals set to be caught  by  the
       calling process are reset to their default behaviour.  The SIGCHLD sig-
       nal (when set to SIG_IGN) may or may not be reset to SIG_DFL.

       If the current program is being ptraced, a SIGTRAP is sent to it  after
       a successful execve().

       If  the  set-user-ID bit is set on the program file pointed to by file‐
       name, and the calling process is not being ptraced, then the  effective
       user  ID  of the calling process is changed to that of the owner of the
       program file.  Similarly, when the set-group-ID bit of the program file
       is  set  the  effective  group  ID of the calling process is set to the
       group of the program file.

       If the executable is an a.out dynamically-linked binary executable con-
       taining  shared-library  stubs,  the  Linux  dynamic linker ld.so(8) is
       called at the start of execution to bring needed shared libraries  into
       core and link the executable with them.

       If  the  executable  is a dynamically-linked ELF executable, the inter-
       preter named in the PT_INTERP segment is used to load the needed shared
       libraries.   This interpreter is typically /lib/ld-linux.so.1 for bina-
       ries linked with the Linux libc version 5,  or  /lib/ld-linux.so.2  for
       binaries linked with the GNU libc version 2.


RETURN VALUE

       On  success,  execve()  does  not  return, on error -1 is returned, and
       errno is set appropriately.


ERRORS

       E2BIG  The total number of bytes in the environment (envp) and argument
              list (argv) is too large.

       EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix of
              filename or  the  name  of  a  script  interpreter.   (See  also
              path_resolution(2).)

       EACCES The file or a script interpreter is not a regular file.

       EACCES Execute  permission  is  denied  for the file or a script or ELF
              interpreter.

       EACCES The file system is mounted noexec.

       EFAULT filename points outside your accessible address space.

       EINVAL An ELF executable had more than  one  PT_INTERP  segment  (i.e.,
              tried to name more than one interpreter).

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

       EISDIR An ELF interpreter was a directory.

       ELIBBAD
              An ELF interpreter was not in a recognised format.

       ELOOP  Too  many  symbolic links were encountered in resolving filename
              or the name of a script or ELF interpreter.

       EMFILE The process has the maximum number of files open.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              filename is too long.

       ENFILE The system limit on the total number  of  open  files  has  been
              reached.

       ENOENT The file filename or a script or ELF interpreter does not exist,
              or a shared library needed for file  or  interpreter  cannot  be
              found.

       ENOEXEC
              An  executable  is  not in a recognised format, is for the wrong
              architecture, or has some other format error that means it  can-
              not be executed.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       ENOTDIR
              A  component  of  the path prefix of filename or a script or ELF
              interpreter is not a directory.

       EPERM  The file system is mounted nosuid, the user  is  not  the  supe-
              ruser, and the file has an SUID or SGID bit set.

       EPERM  The  process  is being traced, the user is not the superuser and
              the file has an SUID or SGID bit set.

       ETXTBSY
              Executable was open for writing by one or more processes.


CONFORMING TO

       SVr4, SVID, X/OPEN, 4.3BSD.  POSIX does not document the  #!   behavior
       but  is  otherwise  compatible.  SVr4 documents additional error condi-
       tions EAGAIN, EINTR, ELIBACC, ENOLINK, EMULTIHOP; POSIX does not  docu-
       ment ETXTBSY, EPERM, EFAULT, ELOOP, EIO, ENFILE, EMFILE, EINVAL, EISDIR
       or ELIBBAD error conditions.


NOTES

       SUID and SGID processes can not be ptrace()d.

       Linux ignores the SUID and SGID bits on scripts.

       The result of mounting a filesystem nosuid vary  between  Linux  kernel
       versions: some will refuse execution of SUID/SGID executables when this
       would give the user powers she did not have already (and return EPERM),
       some will just ignore the SUID/SGID bits and exec() successfully.

       A  maximum  line length of 127 characters is allowed for the first line
       in a #! executable shell script.



HISTORICAL

       With Unix V6 the argument list of an exec() call was ended by 0,  while
       the argument list of main was ended by -1. Thus, this argument list was
       not directly usable in a further exec() call.  Since Unix V7  both  are
       NULL.



SEE ALSO

       chmod(2), fork(2), path_resolution(2), ptrace(2), execl(3), fexecve(3),
       environ(5), ld.so(8)



Linux 2.6.7                       2004-06-23                         EXECVE(2)


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