Whatever message this page gives is out now! Go check it out!

cfexecute

Last update:
May 18, 2026

Description

Executes a ColdFusion developer-specified process on a server computer.

Category

Extensibility tags, Flow-control tags

Syntax

<cfexecute 
 name = "application name" 
 arguments = "command line arguments" 
 outputFile = "output filename" 
 errorFile = "filename to store error output"
 timeout = "timeout interval" 
 variable = "variable name"
 errorVariable = "variable name"> 
 ... 
 </cfexecute>
Note: You can specify this tag's attributes in an attributeCollection attribute whose value is a structure. Specify the structure name in the attributeCollection attribute and use the tag's attribute names as structure keys.

See also

cfcollection, cfindex, cfobject, cfreport, cfsearch, cfwddx

History

ColdFusion MX 6.1:
  • Added the variable attribute.
  • Changed filepath behavior for the outputFile attribute: if you do not specify an absolute filepath in the outputFile attribute, the path is relative to the ColdFusion temporary directory.

Attributes

Attribute
Req/Opt
Default
Description
name
Required
Absolute path of the application to execute.On Windows, specify an extension, for example, C:\myapp.exe.
arguments
Optional
Command-line variables passed to application. If specified as string, it is processed as follows:
  • Windows: passed to process control subsystem for parsing.
  • UNIX: tokenized into an array of arguments. The default token separator is a space; you can delimit arguments that have embedded spaces with double-quotation marks. If passed as array, it is processed as follows:
  • Windows: elements are concatenated into a string of tokens, separated by spaces. Passed to process control subsystem for parsing.
  • UNIX: elements are copied into an array of exec() arguments.
outputFile
Optional
File to which to direct program output. If no outputfile or variable attribute is specified, output is displayed on the page from which it was called. If not an absolute path (starting with a drive letter and a colon, or a forward or backward slash), it is relative to the ColdFusion temporary directory, which is returned by the GetTempDirectory function.
errorFileOptional File in which to direct error output, if any exists.
timeout
Optional
0
Length of time, in seconds, that ColdFusion waits for output from the spawned program.
  • 0: equivalent to nonblocking mode.
  • A very high value: equivalent to blocking mode. If the value is 0:
  • ColdFusion starts a process and returns immediately. ColdFusion may return control to the calling page before any program output displays. To ensure that program output displays, set the value to 2 or higher.
  • If the outputFile attribute is not specified, any program output is discarded
variable
Optional
Variable in which to put program output. If no outputfile or variable attribute is specified, output is displayed on page from which it was called.
errorVariableOptional Variable in which to put error output, if any exists.

Usage

Do not put other ColdFusion tags or functions between the start and end tags of cfexecute. You cannot nest cfexecute tags.

Exceptions

Throws the following exceptions:
  • If the application name is not found: java.io.IOException
  • If the effective user of the ColdFusion executing thread does not have permissions to execute the process: a security exception The time-out values must be between zero and the longest time-out value supported by the operating system.

Example

<h3>cfexecute</h3> 
<p>This example executes the Windows 10 version of the netstat network monitoring program, and places its output in a file. 

<cfexecute name = "C:\Windows\System32\netstat.exe" 
arguments = "-e" 
outputFile = "C:\Temp\output.txt" 
timeout = "1"> 
</cfexecute>
Output (output.txt)
Interface Statistics
Received            Sent
Bytes                          3271307481      2593709042
Unicast packets           141249055       109054150
Non-unicast packets      36464445         3693230
Discards                       5705               0
Errors                            0               0
Unknown protocols                 0

Share this page

Was this page helpful?
We're glad. Tell us how this page helped.
We're sorry. Can you tell us what didn't work for you?
Thank you for your feedback. Your response will help improve this page.

On this page