root:~# gcc -o test2 test2.c
root:~# ./test2
sh: -c: line 3: syntax error: unexpected end of file

============================
#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
system("for i in `cat /etc/samba/smbpasswd|awk '{split($0,a,\":\"); "
"if ((substr(a[1],1,1)!=\"#\") && (a[1]!=\"admin\")) print a[1]}'` "
"do "
"echo -n -e \"SMBUser\t\t\t$i\t\t\"`du -ks /home/$i | "
"awk '{print (($1*1024)/1000000)}'`\"\n\" "
"done");
}

You can't concatenate strings like that. You will have to put all of the commands into a single string.

man strcat

Also, it looks like you're trying to simulate hitting the "enter" key by ending the string. The shell/system call doesn't care about newlines; it ignores them. They're only provided as a means to make it more readable to people. To see what I mean, type out that sequence of commands like you would normally do at the command prompt. Execute it, and then hit the up arrow. Bash prints out the command all on a single line. That is what you will need to make your string look like when you feed it to the system command.

why cant you concatenate strings like that? thats the way to continue strings over more than 1 line in C. the error i think is in the shell commands, instead of calling system print out the string and see of it prints what you actually mean to execute.

You're probably right kev. I just don't do it that way. I get "set in my ways" and if I see something that doesn't fit my coding style, I get antsy...

I'll go back into my little corner now...