command() Function

What is command()?

• command() is a small but powerful FOSS C++ function.
• Its formula is basically: system()-like syntax + fork()/exec() safety = command()
• Designed to provide an easy, readable, shell-free way to run system commands.i
• It is single .hpp file function, so it is very easy for adding it to your C++ project:
• Just copy command.hpp to your project directory, write include "command.hpp to your C++ file and it is ready to use!

Philosophy / History

While developing my project pacostrap, I realized:

• system() is too risky due to shell injection.
• fork() and exec() are safe, but painful to read and write.

So I wrote my own wrapper — command() — a minimal, readable and safe way to execute commands.

Example Usage

#include <iostream> // for cout, main, return function
#include <string> // for string valuable
#include "command.hpp" // for my own super duper awesome command function
int main() {
    std::cout << "Enter directory:\n";
    std::string directory;
    std::cin >> directory;
    command("ls -a " + directory);
    return 0;
}

Compiling

make

If you don't have make installed:

./compile.sh

Running

make run

Or:

./testcommand

Licensing

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPLv3). Allowed License Reuse: You may reuse this function in projects that are licensed under copyleft (strong or weak) licenses, such as:

• GNU GPLv2, GPLv3, AGPLv3, LGPLv2, LGPLv3
• SSPL
• EUPL
• CeCILL v2.1
• OSL
• RTPL
• MPL For more detail, please look at LICENSE file