system() length bound?

[Stephen Clamage]

In article <3346 at goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> ok at goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>The system() function is in ANSI C.  How long can its argument be?
>How can a conforming program find out?

The standard says:

"If the argument is not a null pointer, the _system_ function returns
an implementation-defined value."

IMHO, this means that the implementor must document any limitations on
string length, if only implicitly.  Can your program portably find out at
run-time how long a string may be?  No.
-- 

Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve at taumet.com