5. The program name as the first argument

pravjot

5. The program name as the first argument

Why is it essential to pass the program name as the first argument in `execl()` or `execlp()`?

gaurav133232

It is essential to pass the program name as the first argument to execl or execlp as these commands are created like that i.e. they are defined as:

execl(const char *pathname,const char *argv0,const char *argv1,....(char*)0)

execlp(const char *filename,const char *argv0,const char *argv1,....(char*)0);

Here pathname and filename are the name of programs according to the calls and argv's are the arguments needed, the last argument is null.

Also, without specifying the program, function won't know which process image to load.