Can't run two times execl

Question

If I try to executes these commands:

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    execl("/bin/echo","echo","list ","of", "files:\n",NULL);
    execl("/bin/ls","ls","-al",NULL);
    return 0;
}

Only the first one gets executed, why?

Answer 1

execl REPLACES the current process - it's not a subroutine. You might try using system() instead.

Answer 2

Because as soon as you run exec*() your application stops existing. If you want to run more than one external process then you'll need to fork().

Answer 3

You need to fork first.

Try running

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    if( vfork() == 0 )
        execl("/bin/echo","echo","list ","of", "files:\n",NULL);
    if( vfork() == 0 )
        execl("/bin/ls","ls","-al",NULL);
    return 0;
}