Golang: System Call

To make a system call, use

import "os/exec"

First, build your command. example:

var cmd = exec.Command(cmdName, arg1, arg2)

Each arg should not contain any space.

then, you have several choices how you want to run it. The main choices are:

cmd.Output()

Run it, wait, get output.

cmd.Run()

Run it, wait for it to finish.

cmd.Start()

Run it, don't wait. err = cmd.Wait() to get result.

if you need to change dir before running the command, use

os.Chdir(path)

package main

// example of calling shell command

// cd to a given dir
// call ls -al
// print its output

import "fmt"
import "os"
import "os/exec"

func main() {

	var dirToRun = "/Users/xah/web/"
	var err = os.Chdir(dirToRun)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	var cmdName = "ls"

	var cmd = exec.Command(cmdName, "-a", "-l")

	output, err := cmd.Output()
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	fmt.Printf("%v\n", string(output))

}

Reference

https://golang.org/pkg/os/exec/