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+.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
+.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
+.\"
+.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
+.\" are met:
+.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
+.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
+.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
+.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
+.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
+.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
+.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
+.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
+.\" without specific prior written permission.
+.\"
+.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
+.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
+.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
+.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
+.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
+.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
+.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
+.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
+.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
+.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
+.\"
+.\" @(#)exec.3 8.3 (Berkeley) 1/24/94
+.\"
+.Dd January 24, 1994
+.Dt EXEC 3
+.Os
+.Sh NAME
+.Nm execl ,
+.Nm execlp ,
+.Nm execle ,
+.Nm exect ,
+.Nm execv ,
+.Nm execvp
+.Nd execute a file
+.Sh SYNOPSIS
+.Fd #include <unistd.h>
+.Vt extern char **environ;
+.Ft int
+.Fn execl "const char *path" "const char *arg" ...
+.Ft int
+.Fn execlp "const char *file" "const char *arg" ...
+.Ft int
+.Fn execle "const char *path" "const char *arg" ... "char *const envp[]"
+.Ft int
+.Fn exect "const char *path" "char *const argv[]" "char *const envp[]"
+.Ft int
+.Fn execv "const char *path" "char *const argv[]"
+.Ft int
+.Fn execvp "const char *file" "char *const argv[]"
+.Sh DESCRIPTION
+The
+.Nm exec
+family of functions replaces the current process image with a
+new process image.
+The functions described in this manual page are front-ends for the function
+.Xr execve 2 .
+(See the manual page for
+.Xr execve
+for detailed information about the replacement of the current process.)
+.Pp
+The initial argument for these functions is the pathname of a file which
+is to be executed.
+.Pp
+The
+.Fa "const char *arg"
+and subsequent ellipses in the
+.Fn execl ,
+.Fn execlp ,
+and
+.Fn execle
+functions can be thought of as
+.Em arg0 ,
+.Em arg1 ,
+\&...,
+.Em argn .
+Together they describe a list of one or more pointers to null-terminated
+strings that represent the argument list available to the executed program.
+The first argument, by convention, should point to the file name associated
+with the file being executed.
+The list of arguments
+.Em must
+be terminated by a
+.Dv NULL
+pointer.
+.Pp
+The
+.Fn exect ,
+.Fn execv ,
+and
+.Fn execvp
+functions provide an array of pointers to null-terminated strings that
+represent the argument list available to the new program.
+The first argument, by convention, should point to the file name associated
+with the file begin executed.
+The array of pointers
+.Sy must
+be terminated by a
+.Dv NULL
+pointer.
+.Pp
+The
+.Fn execle
+and
+.Fn exect
+functions also specify the environment of the executed process by following
+the
+.Dv NULL
+pointer that terminates the list of arguments in the parameter list
+or the pointer to the argv array with an additional parameter.
+This additional parameter is an array of pointers to null-terminated strings
+and
+.Em must
+be terminated by a
+.Dv NULL
+pointer.
+The other functions take the environment for the new process image from the
+external variable
+.Va environ
+in the current process.
+.Pp
+Some of these functions have special semantics.
+.Pp
+The functions
+.Fn execlp
+and
+.Fn execvp
+will duplicate the actions of the shell in searching for an executable file
+if the specified file name does not contain a slash
+.Dq Li /
+character.
+The search path is the path specified in the environment by
+.Dq Ev PATH
+variable.
+If this variable isn't specified, the default path
+.Dq Ev /bin:/usr/bin:
+is
+used.
+In addition, certain errors are treated specially.
+.Pp
+If permission is denied for a file (the attempted
+.Xr execve
+returned
+.Er EACCES ) ,
+these functions will continue searching the rest of
+the search path.
+If no other file is found, however, they will return with the global variable
+.Va errno
+set to
+.Er EACCES .
+.Pp
+If the header of a file isn't recognized (the attempted
+.Xr execve
+returned
+.Er ENOEXEC ) ,
+these functions will execute the shell with the path of
+the file as its first argument.
+(If this attempt fails, no further searching is done.)
+.Pp
+If the file is currently busy (the attempted
+.Xr execve
+returned
+.Er ETXTBUSY ) ,
+these functions will sleep for several seconds,
+periodically re-attempting to execute the file.
+.Pp
+The function
+.Fn exect
+executes a file with the program tracing facilities enabled (see
+.Xr ptrace 2 ) .
+.Sh RETURN VALUES
+If any of the
+.Xr exec
+functions returns, an error will have occurred.
+The return value is \-1, and the global variable
+.Va errno
+will be set to indicate the error.
+.Sh FILES
+.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh - compact
+.It Pa /bin/sh
+The shell.
+.El
+.Sh ERRORS
+.Fn Execl ,
+.Fn execle ,
+.Fn execlp
+and
+.Fn execvp
+may fail and set
+.Va errno
+for any of the errors specified for the library functions
+.Xr execve 2
+and
+.Xr malloc 3 .
+.Pp
+.Fn Exect
+and
+.Fn execv
+may fail and set
+.Va errno
+for any of the errors specified for the library function
+.Xr execve 2 .
+.Sh SEE ALSO
+.Xr sh 1 ,
+.Xr execve 2 ,
+.Xr fork 2 ,
+.Xr trace 2 ,
+.Xr environ 7 ,
+.Xr ptrace 2 ,
+.Xr environ 7 ,
+.Sh COMPATIBILITY
+Historically, the default path for the
+.Fn execlp
+and
+.Fn execvp
+functions was
+.Dq Pa :/bin:/usr/bin .
+This was changed to place the current directory last to enhance system
+security.
+.Pp
+The behavior of
+.Fn execlp
+and
+.Fn execvp
+when errors occur while attempting to execute the file is historic
+practice, but has not traditionally been documented and is not specified
+by the
+.Tn POSIX
+standard.
+.Pp
+Traditionally, the functions
+.Fn execlp
+and
+.Fn execvp
+ignored all errors except for the ones described above and
+.Er ENOMEM
+and
+.Er E2BIG ,
+upon which they returned.
+They now return if any error other than the ones described above occurs.
+.Sh STANDARDS
+.Fn Execl ,
+.Fn execv ,
+.Fn execle ,
+.Fn execlp
+and
+.Fn execvp
+conform to
+.St -p1003.1-88 .