_execv, _wexecv

Article
06/05/2017

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The latest version of this topic can be found at _execv, _wexecv.

Loads and executes new child processes.

Important

This API cannot be used in applications that execute in the Windows Runtime. For more information, see CRT functions not supported with /ZW.

Syntax

intptr_t _execv(   
   const char *cmdname,  
   const char *const *argv   
);  
intptr_t _wexecv(   
   const wchar_t *cmdname,  
   const wchar_t *const *argv   
);

Parameters

cmdname
Path of the file to execute.

argv
Array of pointers to parameters.

Return Value

If successful, these functions do not return to the calling process. A return value of –1 indicates an error, in which case the errno global variable is set.

`errno` value	Description
`E2BIG`	The space required for the arguments and environment settings exceeds 32 KB.
`EACCES`	The specified file has a locking or sharing violation.
`EINVAL`	Invalid parameter.
`EMFILE`	Too many files open (the specified file must be opened to determine whether it is executable).
`ENOENT`	The file or path not found.
`ENOEXEC`	The specified file is not executable or has an invalid executable-file format.
`ENOMEM`	Not enough memory is available to execute the new process; the available memory has been corrupted; or an invalid block exists, indicating that the calling process was not allocated properly.

For more information about these and other return codes, see _doserrno, errno, _sys_errlist, and _sys_nerr.

Remarks

Each of these functions loads and executes a new process, passing an array of pointers to command-line arguments.

The _execv functions validate their parameters. If cmdname is a null pointer, or if argv is a null pointer, pointer to an empty array, or if the array contains an empty string as the first argument, the _execv functions invoke the invalid parameter handler as described in Parameter Validation. If execution is allowed to continue, these functions set errno to EINVAL and return -1. No process is launched.

Requirements

Function	Required header	Optional header
`_execv`	<process.h>	<errno.h>
`_wexecv`	<process.h> or <wchar.h>	<errno.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

See the example in _exec, _wexec Functions.