Execute lynx in a c program and make it go to a certain URL

tinieprotonjam · 12-09-2006, 07:19 PM

I'm a Linux newbie, and I'm just starting out to do C programming in Linux.
I need to call lynx to go into a certain website from a C program that I already made when a certain key is pressed. I've read that one needs to call a fork() system call to make a child process and to use any of the functions in the exec family (execlp, exeve,execl, and the like)but I seem to have a problem understanding how they differ from one another and which one should I use, and how will I pass the URL I want to visit which is stored as a string.
I will appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

jim mcnamara · 12-09-2006, 08:01 PM

A simple way is to use system()

Code:

#include <stdlib.h>
void foo(const char *my_url)
{
char cmd[128]={0x0};
sprintf(cmd,"/usr/bin/lynx %s", my_url);
system(cmd);
}

tinieprotonjam · 12-10-2006, 11:09 PM

By the way, thanks jim. I was able to try the code and it works.

I was hoping if there is any other way to do this, since after I quit from lynx, I want to go back to my program (the one that called lynx).