How do I execute a shell command?

[Bill Vlahos]

The docs say to execute a shell command you can do:
shell("ls -l *.txt")

However, this fails for me with:
Message execution error:
Error description: Handler: can't find handler
Hint: shell("ls

How do I run a shell command from inside LiveCode on a Mac?

The full solution I want to do is to run the "id" command as administrator so I could run "sudo id" but I want to prompt for a successful authentication.

I know how to do this in AppleScript so I could just call that but I would rather to it in LC.

Bill Vlahos