SYSTEM

The SYSTEM command evaluates a string expression and passes it directly to the host operating system. If the optional redirection is employed, the results of the operating system command are assigned to the indicated MSTRING variable (multi_var).

 SYS[TEM] expn [> multi_var]

 expn          - a string expression
 multi_var     - a variable of type MSTRING

Example:

The following example is specific to Unix. It will collect a list of names of .pix files in the local directory and run CDL on them one after the other.

  local mstring flist, int i, string dummy
  system "ls *.pix" > flist
  for i = 1 to F$LEN(flist)
    file = flist(i)
    run cdl
    input "Hit <Enter> to continue:" dummy
  endfor

Defining an alias for a command is a convenient way to speed up frequently used operating system commands. See the section on ALIAS for further examples.