call-process

call-process is a built-in function in `C source code'.

(call-process PROGRAM &optional INFILE DESTINATION DISPLAY &rest ARGS)

Call PROGRAM synchronously in separate process.
The remaining arguments are optional.
The program's input comes from file INFILE (nil means `/dev/null').
Insert output in DESTINATION before point; t means current buffer; nil for DESTINATION
means discard it; 0 means discard and don't wait; and `(:file FILE)', where
FILE is a file name string, means that it should be written to that file
(if the file already exists it is overwritten).
DESTINATION can also have the form (REAL-BUFFER STDERR-FILE); in that case,
REAL-BUFFER says what to do with standard output, as above,
while STDERR-FILE says what to do with standard error in the child.
STDERR-FILE may be nil (discard standard error output),
t (mix it with ordinary output), or a file name string.

Fourth arg DISPLAY non-nil means redisplay buffer as output is inserted.
Remaining arguments are strings passed as command arguments to PROGRAM.

If executable PROGRAM can't be found as an executable, `call-process'
signals a Lisp error. `call-process' reports errors in execution of
the program only through its return and output.

If DESTINATION is 0, `call-process' returns immediately with value nil.
Otherwise it waits for PROGRAM to terminate
and returns a numeric exit status or a signal description string.
If you quit, the process is killed with SIGINT, or SIGKILL if you quit again.