execve-wexecve.md

description	title	ms.date	api_name	api_location	api_type	topic_type	f1_keywords	helpviewer_keywords	ms.assetid
Learn more about: _execve, _wexecve	_execve, _wexecve	4/2/2020	_execve _wexecve _o__execve _o__wexecve	msvcrt.dll msvcr80.dll msvcr90.dll msvcr100.dll msvcr100_clr0400.dll msvcr110.dll msvcr110_clr0400.dll msvcr120.dll msvcr120_clr0400.dll ucrtbase.dll api-ms-win-crt-process-l1-1-0.dll	DLLExport	apiref	wexecve _wexecve _execve	execve function wexecve function _execve function _wexecve function	950d4802-a9c3-4f32-8145-a0119dd1d596

_execve, _wexecve

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 in Universal Windows Platform apps.

Syntax

intptr_t _execve(
   const char *cmdname,
   const char *const *argv,
   const char *const *envp
);
intptr_t _wexecve(
   const wchar_t *cmdname,
   const wchar_t *const *argv,
   const wchar_t *const *envp
);

Parameters

cmdname
Path of the file to execute.

argv
Array of pointers to parameters.

envp
Array of pointers to environment settings.

Return value

If successful, these functions don't 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's executable).
ENOENT	The file or path not found.
ENOEXEC	The specified file isn't 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 wasn't allocated properly.

For more information about these and other return codes, see errno, _doserrno, _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 and an array of pointers to environment settings.

_execve and _wexecve validate their parameters. These functions invoke the invalid parameter handler, as described in Parameter validation, when:

• cmdname is a null pointer,
• argv is either a null pointer or pointer to an empty array,
• the array contains an empty string as the first argument.

If execution is allowed to continue by the handler, these functions set errno to EINVAL, and return -1. No process is launched.

By default, this function's global state is scoped to the application. To change this behavior, see Global state in the CRT.

Requirements

Function	Required header	Optional header
_execve	<process.h>	<errno.h>
_wexecve	<process.h> or <wchar.h>	<errno.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

See the example in _exec, _wexec functions.

See also

Process and environment control
_exec, _wexec functions
abort
atexit
exit, _Exit, _exit
_onexit, _onexit_m
_spawn, _wspawn functions
system, _wsystem