cp and rm return non zero value

Applications Programming
1

rm and cp return non zero values sometimes.

sprintf(tmp, "rm -rf %s/* 2>/dev/null\n", dest);
rc = system( tmp );
rc = 1 and errno =0

sprintf(tmp, "cp -r %s/* %s 2>/dev/null", source, dest);
rc = system( tmp );
rc = -1 and errno = 2.

The files exist and the paths are correct. I can do a manual copy but the application fails. If I restart the application, this works fine.
Can anyone tell why this could happen?

2

Check what the current directory is when the program is running?

3

The program is running from a location different from the source or destination directories.

4

Does the application change the current directory or use fully qualified paths?

5

The application does not change the current directory and source and destination directories are FQPs.

6

  1. You don't need the "\n" at the end of the string for system()

  2. Try without the "2>/dev/null" and it might tell you why.

7

Thanks!
I can try that, but I really don't know when it would fail, because the program works 99.9% of the times.

8

also try using absolute path names for the standard utilities like rm and cp when using within a system function call !