command A pointer to a null-terminated string containing a shell command line. type A pointer to a null-terminated string containing an I/O mode. Because open files are shared, you can use a type r command as an input filter and a type w command as an output filter. Specify one of the following values for the type argument: o r-the calling program can read from the standard output of the command by reading from the returned file stream. o w-the calling program can write to the standard input of the command by writing to the returned file stream.