How do I use terminal commands in C++?

If you are using UNIX based system, you can use terminal commands with the help of the system() function. Try the below code example: #include "iostream" using namespace std; int main() { system("ls -lrt"); return 0; } system() in C/C++ system() is used to invoke an operating system command from a C/C++ program. int system(const char *command); Note: stdlib.h or cstdlib needs to be included to call system. Using system(), we can execute any command that can run on terminal if operating system allows. For example, we can call system(“dir”) on Windows and system(“ls”) to list contents of a directory. Writing a C/C++ program that compiles and runs other program? We can invoke gcc from our program using system(). See below code written for Linux. We can easily change code to run on windows. // A C++ program that compiles and runs another C++ // program #include "bits/stdc++.h" using namespace std; int main () { char filename[100]; cout << "Enter file name to compile "; cin.getline(filename, 100); // Build command to execute. For example if the input // file name is a.cpp, then str holds "gcc -o a.out a.cpp" // Here -o is used to specify executable file name string str = "gcc "; str = str + " -o a.out " + filename; // Convert string to const char * as system requires // parameter of type const char * const char *command = str.c_str(); cout << "Compiling file using " << command << endl; system(command); cout << "\nRunning file "; system("./a.out"); return 0; } Thanks. read less