execv(2)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Numbers (x64 / i386 / arm64-generic / arm32) | none on any architecture – execv has no syscall entry anywhere (ledger numbers columns all none, generated from the four cached per-arch tables) |
| Since (kernel) | – (the name is a libc-level interface, not a kernel entry point) |
| Man page | man2/execve.2 documents the kernel calls; execv(3) is documented in man3/exec.3 (not in the sparse cache’s man2/); the ledger’s syscalls(2) scan found no man2/execv.2 |
| glibc wrapper | execv@@GLIBC_2.2.5 (nm -D, glibc 2.41); declared in /usr/include/unistd.h line 584 as extern int execv (const char *__path, char *const __argv[]) |
| Aliases covered | none (this page is the ledger’s landing page for the name execv) |
| Ledger ID | SC-execv |
Purpose
execv() is the classic exec* interface that replaces the calling process image with a new program, passing arguments as a NULL-terminated vector – but on Linux it exists only as a libc function layered on the execve(2) syscall, which it invokes with the caller’s environment (exec-family contract: execv(p, argv) == execve(p, argv, environ)). It is inventoried here because the ledger tracks every name in the per-arch syscall tables and in the syscalls(2) history, and execv appears there as a userspace-visible exec name with no numbers.
Synopsis
#include <unistd.h>
int execv(const char *path, char *const argv[]);
Arguments and behavior
path must be an executable path (no PATH search – that is execvp/execvpe’s job at libc level); argv is a NULL-terminated array of argument strings, and by convention argv[0] is the program name. The kernel entry point actually invoked is execve(2) with environ as the third argument; every semantic – permission checks, script/ELF handling, ptrace, rlimits preserved across exec – is described in execve.md and is identical for execv.
Return value and errors
Returns only on failure, -1 with errno set exactly as execve (EACCES, EFAULT, EINVAL, EIO, EISDIR, ELOOP, ENAMETOOLONG, ENOENT, ENOEXEC, ENOMEM, ENOTDIR, ETXTBSY, E2BIG per execve.2 ERRORS). Success replaces the process, so nothing returns.
Security and notes
The exec-family split (kernel execve/execveat vs. libc exec/execl/execle/execlp/execv/execvp/execvpe/fexecve) is a load-bearing example of the encyclopedia’s naming rule: an application-visible interface, a kernel implementation, and the syscall-table name are three different things that must not be conflated (see interface-encyclopedia.md). execv is also a historical portability marker: 4.3BSD provided execv; POSIX.1-2001 kept execv() but XSI-shaded; POSIX.1-2008 removed it from the standard C set and moved it to XSI, while Linux libcs keep it for compatibility. musl implements it in src/process/execv.c (verified in musl-clone). Full kernel-side coverage: execve.md, execveat.md.
References
- /usr/include/unistd.h (execv declaration)
- nm -D /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (execv@@GLIBC_2.2.5)
- musl: source-cache/musl-clone/musl/src/process/execv.c
- Kernel tables: source-cache/kernel/{syscall_64,syscall_32,syscall_generic,syscall_arm}.tbl (no execv row – verified absence)
- Ledger row SC-execv