C++ system() function — How to collect the output of the issued command?

Question

I\'m running some commands with the C++ system() function:

int system ( const char * command );

How can I collect the standard

Answer 1

There are typically two ways for a system program to "return" a value: by writing to stdout, and by returning a status integer at the end of the program. (there are often more ways to return results, eg. by writing to a file or into a database, but I assume those are out of scope here).

For receiving the status code, just check the return value of the system function.

For receiving the output, either redirect it into a file, and read the file afterwards, or use popen.