Rebol3 Code Examplex


Get system command output

Run a system command and capture its output.

Rebol [
    title: "Rosetta code: Get system command output"
    file:  %Get_system_command_output.r3
    url:   https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Bitmap/Get_system_command_output
]

system-command: function[
    "Execute a system command and get its output"
    command [string!] "The shell command string to execute"
][
    out: copy ""  ;; Buffer to capture stdout
    err: copy ""  ;; Buffer to capture stderr
    
    ;; Run the command in a shell, routing stdout -> out, stderr -> err
    ;; Returns an integer exit code (0 = success)
    res: call/shell/output/error :command :out :err
    
    ;; Return all three results as a block for multi-value destructuring
    reduce [res out err]
]

;; Pick the correct directory-listing command for the current OS
command: either system/platform = 'Windows ["dir"]["ls -la"]

;; Execute the command and unpack the returned [exit-code stdout stderr] block
set [res out err] system-command :command

;; Print stdout on success (exit code 0), otherwise print stderr
print either res == 0 [out][err]

Output:

 Volume in drive C is OS
 Volume Serial Number is 16C0-E786

 Directory of c:\Dev\Builder\tree\rebol\Rebol-RosettaCode\tasks

06/01/2026  01:05 PM    <DIR>          .
04/10/2026  11:06 PM    <DIR>          ..
04/10/2026  06:15 PM                 9 .gitignore
06/01/2026  12:41 PM             1,350 100_doors.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,769 100_prisoners.r3
04/16/2026  02:58 PM         3,349,503 135-0.txt
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               732 21_game.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,315 24_game.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,430 9_billion_names_of_God_the_integer.r3
10/14/2025  06:12 PM             6,640 abbrev.txt
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,523 Abbreviations,_automatic.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,836 Abbreviations,_easy.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,175 Abbreviations,_simple.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               832 ABC_correlation.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,602 ABC_problem.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               706 ABC_words.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,153 Abelian_sandpile_model-Identitys.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,826 Abundant_odd_numbers.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,508 Additive_primes.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,306 Almost_prime.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,882 Amb.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,910 Anagrams-Deranged_anagrams.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,350 Anagrams.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             4,869 Anagram_generator.r3
05/01/2026  02:15 PM             1,196 Angles_(geometric),_normalization_and_conversion.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               901 Anti-primes.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               451 Append_numbers_at_same_position_in_strings.r3
06/01/2026  12:56 PM           580,477 Archimedean_spiral.png
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,748 Archimedean_spiral.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             4,398 Arithmetic_evaluation.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               829 Attractive_numbers.r3
05/22/2026  12:14 PM               981 Audio_alarm.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,514 Audio_frequency_generator.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,610 Audio_overlap_loop.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             6,854 Autogram_checker.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,949 Babylonian_spiral.r3
04/10/2026  11:06 PM               916 Balanced_brackets.r3
06/01/2026  12:59 PM            36,457 barnsley-fern.png
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,036 Barnsley_fern.r3
04/18/2026  11:05 PM             3,848 Bifid_cipher.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,244 Bilinear_interpolation.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,775 Biorhythms.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,163 Bitcoin_address_validation.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,657 Bitmap-Flood_fill.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               928 Bitmap-Histogram.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,139 Bitmap-Midpoint_circle_algorithm.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,395 Bitmap-Read_a_PPM_file.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,681 Bitmap-Write_a_PPM_file.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,279 Bitwise_IO.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               662 Bitwise_operations.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             5,334 Boids.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,817 Box_the_compass.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,416 Bulls_and_cows-player.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,854 Bulls_and_cows.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,904 Burrows-Wheeler_transform.r3
05/14/2026  11:23 AM               834 Caesar_cipher.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,013 Calendar_for_REAL_programmers.r3
05/14/2026  11:50 PM             1,571 Camel_case_and_snake_case.r3
04/15/2026  10:53 AM             2,715 Card_shuffles.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               945 Catalan_numbers-Pascal's_triangle.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               403 Catalan_numbers.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,835 Chinese_zodiac.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,856 Color_quantization-median_cut.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM            10,473 Color_quantization-octree.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,061 Conway's_Game_of_Life.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,728 Count_the_coins_0-1.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               936 Create_an_HTML_table.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               400 Create_a_two-dimensional_array_at_runtime.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,457 CSV_data_manipulation.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,540 CSV_to_HTML_translation.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               602 Currency.r3
06/01/2026  01:05 PM               108 data.fasta
04/15/2026  06:24 PM             1,006 Deal_cards_for_FreeCell.r3
06/01/2026  01:05 PM            11,906 Death_Star.jpg
05/07/2026  07:00 PM             7,281 Death_Star.r3
05/07/2026  07:00 PM             1,722 Death_Star_ASCII.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,121 Digital_root.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               950 Display_a_linear_combination.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,700 Dragon_curve.r3
06/01/2026  01:05 PM             4,039 draw-cuboid.png
06/01/2026  01:05 PM            10,854 draw-sphere.jpg
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,699 Draw_a_clock.r3
05/13/2026  02:34 PM             1,205 Draw_a_cuboid.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               438 Draw_a_pixel.r3
05/13/2026  04:25 PM             2,832 Draw_a_sphere.r3
06/01/2026  12:59 PM            84,428 drumloop.wav
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               881 Ethiopian_multiplication.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               497 Euler's_constant.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,126 Euler_method.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,488 Evolutionary_algorithm.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,220 Exactly_three_adjacent_3_in_lists.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,802 Execute_Brainfuck.r3
05/13/2026  03:20 PM               620 Extend_your_language.r3
04/09/2026  09:20 PM             2,489 FASTA_format.r3
04/19/2026  01:22 PM               716 Fibonacci_sequence.r3
06/01/2026  01:00 PM             7,140 Filledcirc.png
04/11/2026  12:25 PM               397 Find_prime_n_such_that_reversed_n_is_also_prime.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,085 First-class_functions-Use_numbers_analogously.r3
06/01/2026  12:42 PM             2,362 Five_weekends.r3
06/01/2026  01:05 PM            95,164 fractal-tree.png
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,444 Fractal_tree.r3
04/10/2026  11:00 AM             3,596 Fraction_reduction.r3
04/19/2026  02:19 PM             1,437 Fractran.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,281 Gapful_numbers.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,070 Get_system_command_output.r3
04/11/2026  12:06 PM               761 Gosper's_hack.r3
04/16/2026  10:32 AM             6,953 Go_fish.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             5,599 Greed.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,127 GSTrans_string_conversion.r3
05/07/2026  12:23 PM           368,458 Harriss_Spiral.png
05/07/2026  03:51 PM             4,107 Harriss_Spiral.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               657 Hash_join.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             4,824 Huffman_coding.r3
06/01/2026  01:00 PM                65 image.ppm
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,753 Image_noise.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,266 Increment_loop_index_within_loop_body.r3
04/10/2026  06:01 PM             1,338 Integer_overflow.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,205 ISBN13_check_digit.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,174 I_before_E_except_after_C.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,651 Jacobsthal_numbers.r3
05/01/2026  05:02 PM             1,368 JSON_pointer.r3
04/18/2026  02:33 PM             2,666 Knapsack_problem-0-1.r3
04/18/2026  01:53 PM             3,872 Knapsack_problem-Bounded.r3
04/18/2026  09:44 PM             1,639 Knapsack_problem-Continuous.r3
04/18/2026  09:42 PM             2,160 Knapsack_problem-Unbounded.r3
04/09/2026  04:03 PM             2,376 Knight's_tour.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,721 Knuth_shuffle.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,614 Largest_number_divisible_by_its_digits.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,132 Leap_year.r3
05/01/2026  01:32 AM             2,446 Legendre_prime_counting_function.r3
06/01/2026  01:00 PM         1,302,665 Lenna100-larger.png
02/24/2026  12:06 PM            43,485 Lenna100.jpg
06/01/2026  01:00 PM            18,083 Lenna50-bw.png
02/24/2026  12:06 PM            23,894 Lenna50.jpg
04/16/2026  03:25 PM             1,084 Letter_frequency.r3
04/16/2026  02:27 PM             1,941 Levenshtein_distance.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,512 Longest_common_suffix.r3
04/10/2026  11:41 AM             1,434 Look-and-say_sequence.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,017 Loop-With_multiple_ranges.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               972 Loops-Wrong_ranges.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,231 Ludic_numbers.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,871 Luhn_test_of_credit_card_numbers.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,431 Lychrel_numbers.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,936 LZW_compression.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,756 Mandelbrot_set.r3
04/10/2026  04:55 PM             3,187 Mayan_numerals.r3
04/19/2026  03:37 PM             2,022 Maze_generation.r3
06/01/2026  01:00 PM             1,430 midpoint-circles.png
04/10/2026  05:24 PM               744 Minimum_primes.r3
06/12/2019  10:27 PM            79,712 MnichRadovani.mp3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,088 Morse_code.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,073 Multiton.r3
06/01/2026  01:05 PM                94 new.csv
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,270 Nim_game.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,313 Numbers_divisible_by_their_individual_digits,_but_not_by_the_product_of_their_digits.r3
02/24/2026  12:06 PM               179 objects.dat
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,078 Object_serialization.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,227 Ordered_words.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,815 Padovan_n-step_number_sequences.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,538 Pairs_with_common_factors.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,379 Palindrome_detection.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,722 Palindromic_gapful_numbers.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             6,081 Parsing-Shunting-yard_algorithm.r3
03/06/2026  07:03 PM            23,929 pentagram.png
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               913 Pentagram.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             6,301 Permutation_test.r3
04/19/2026  02:19 PM             3,012 Pick_random_element.r3
04/29/2026  10:12 AM             1,057 Piprimes.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,781 Playing_cards.r3
04/15/2026  04:50 PM             3,066 Poker_hand_analyser.r3
05/13/2026  11:09 AM             2,689 Polynomial_regression.r3
10/14/2025  06:12 PM           952,427 polyspiral.png
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,025 Polyspiral.r3
10/14/2025  06:12 PM           287,376 pythagoras-tree.jpg
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,605 Pythagoras_tree.r3
06/01/2026  01:01 PM           159,918 Quantum_frog-16-colors.png
06/01/2026  01:01 PM            32,557 Quantum_frog-3-colors.png
06/01/2026  01:01 PM            89,489 Quantum_frog-octree-16-colors.png
06/01/2026  01:01 PM           138,010 Quantum_frog-octree-32-colors.png
03/11/2026  08:54 PM           389,441 quantum_frog.png
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               815 Quine.r3
05/13/2026  11:04 PM             2,088 Read_a_configuration_file.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               972 Recaman's_sequence.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,398 Reduced_row_echelon_form.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,290 Rock-paper-scissors.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,583 Rosetta_Code-Count_examples.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,227 Rosetta_Code-Find_unimplemented_tasks.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,993 Rosetta_Code-Rank_languages_by_popularity.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,348 RPG_attributes_generatot.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,931 Sattolo_cycle.r3
04/18/2026  11:28 PM               845 Self-describing_numbers.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               693 Semordnilap.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,432 SHA-256_Merkle_tree.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               416 Show_ASCII_table.r3
05/14/2026  09:22 AM               378 Show_the_epoch.r3
05/15/2026  11:36 AM             1,022 Sierpinski_carpet.r3
05/15/2026  11:02 AM               701 Sierpinski_triangle.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,413 Sieve_of_Eratosthenes.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             3,386 Sieve_of_Pritchard.r3
05/07/2026  10:44 AM               621 Sleeping_Beauty_problem.r3
05/29/2026  10:11 AM               800 Soloway's_recurring_rainfall.r3
05/13/2026  11:26 AM               802 Sorting_algorithms-Bubble_sort.r3
05/12/2026  11:27 PM               829 Sorting_algorithms-Comb_sort.r3
05/12/2026  01:59 PM             1,016 Sorting_algorithms-Counting_sort.r3
04/10/2026  11:06 PM               912 Sorting_algorithms-Gnome_sort.r3
05/12/2026  01:23 PM             1,393 Sorting_algorithms-Insertion_sort.r3
05/13/2026  12:15 PM             1,618 Sorting_algorithms-Quicksort.r3
05/13/2026  01:07 PM             1,659 Sorting_algorithms-Radix_sort.r3
05/13/2026  12:08 PM             1,446 Sorting_algorithms-Stooge_sort.r3
05/29/2026  10:55 AM               934 Sort_a_list_of_object_identifiers.r3
05/12/2026  01:42 PM               728 Sort_stability.r3
05/15/2026  10:16 AM             1,568 Soundex.r3
05/15/2026  11:10 AM             1,119 Sparkline_in_unicode.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,292 Spiral_matrix.r3
06/01/2026  12:42 PM             2,921 Statistics-Normal_distribution.r3
05/29/2026  03:25 PM             1,335 Stem-and-leaf_plot.r3
04/18/2026  10:27 PM             2,832 Straddling_checkerboard.r3
05/29/2026  02:47 PM             1,000 String_comparison.r3
05/14/2026  12:00 AM               532 Strip_a_set_of_characters_from_a_string.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,825 Sub-unit_squares.r3
05/15/2026  09:49 AM               729 Sudan_function.r3
05/14/2026  11:20 AM               414 Temperature_conversion.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,284 Terminal_control-Restricted_width_positional_input-No_wrapping.r3
05/14/2026  09:07 AM             1,992 Ternary_logic.r3
06/01/2026  01:05 PM                65 test.csv
06/01/2026  01:05 PM               905 test.png
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               832 The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas.r3
05/13/2026  10:01 AM               927 Time_a_function.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             2,482 Transliterate_English_text_using_the_Greek_alphabet.r3
04/30/2026  05:26 PM               909 Truncate_a_file.r3
06/01/2026  01:00 PM            13,704 Unfilledcirc.png
03/04/2026  02:28 PM           206,403 unixdict.txt
04/11/2026  02:36 PM               459 URL_decoding.r3
04/11/2026  03:13 PM               752 URL_encoding.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,639 Validate_International_Securities_Identification_Number.r3
05/07/2026  09:20 AM             1,969 Vector.r3
05/07/2026  10:23 AM               921 Vector_products.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,909 Vigenere_cipher.r3
04/19/2026  12:44 AM               713 Walk_a_directory-Non-recursively.r3
04/19/2026  12:22 AM             1,216 Walk_a_directory-Recursively.r3
04/15/2026  04:47 PM             2,725 War_card_game.r3
05/01/2026  02:19 PM             8,010 Wave_function_collapse.r3
05/14/2026  11:03 AM             2,563 Wordiff.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM             1,822 Wordle_comparison.r3
04/16/2026  03:12 PM             1,020 Word_frequency.r3
05/14/2026  09:43 AM             1,870 Word_wheel.r3
05/13/2026  07:40 PM               870 Write_language_name_in_3D_ASCII-v2.r3
05/13/2026  05:28 PM             1,762 Write_language_name_in_3D_ASCII.r3
04/16/2026  07:06 PM             2,231 XXXX_redacted.r3
04/09/2026  09:27 PM               792 Zig-zag_matrix.r3
05/22/2026  03:10 PM             2,318 _unimplemented_tasks.r3
             249 File(s)      8,738,224 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  834,285,867,008 bytes free