From help-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu  Mon Aug 28 17:20:00 1995
Subject: Re: system(), shell, & stderr. 
From: niles at hp5-745 dot gsfc dot nasa dot gov
To: John Eaton <jwe at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu>
Cc: help-octave at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu, niles@hp5-745.gsfc.nasa.gov
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 95 17:57:54 -0400



>Octave's system() function is implemented using a class derived from
>the procbuf class in libg++, which implements a popen function.  The
>code to exec the subprocess is
>
>   _IO_execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", command, NULL);
>
>so your command should always be executed as a /bin/sh command,


Ok so it was a dumb question, but what I really want to do is
put a process in the background.
e.g. system("emacs &")

However, I don't get the octave prompt back until I exit emacs.

I noticed system("emacs > /dev/tty &") does work!

I guess this is what one has to do to run a process in the background.

	Thanks and sorry for the dumb question,
	Rick Niles.