Simulating multi pipes "|" with a loop in c - c

I'm trying to simulate Unix shell multi pipes in c and I found a source code of a function doing the same thing but I didn't understand it well, if you can please explaint to me how's works, I know that pipe fd[2] creates fd[0] read input, and fd[1] write input as well dup2 close selected FD and duplicate it to FD through the pipe.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
/*
* loop over commands by sharing
* pipes.
*/
static void
pipeline(char ***cmd)
{
int fd[2];
pid_t pid;
int fdd = 0; /* Backup */
while (*cmd != NULL) {
pipe(fd); /* Sharing bidiflow */
if ((pid = fork()) == -1) {
perror("fork");
exit(1);
}
else if (pid == 0) {
dup2(fdd, 0);
if (*(cmd + 1) != NULL) {
dup2(fd[1], 1);
}
close(fd[0]);
execvp((*cmd)[0], *cmd);
exit(1);
}
else {
wait(NULL); /* Collect childs */
close(fd[1]);
fdd = fd[0];
cmd++;
}
}
}
/*
* Compute multi-pipeline based
* on a command list.
*/
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char *ls[] = {"ls", "-al", NULL};
char *rev[] = {"rev", NULL};
char *nl[] = {"nl", NULL};
char *cat[] = {"cat", "-e", NULL};
char **cmd[] = {ls, rev, nl, cat, NULL};
pipeline(cmd);
return (0);
}

Related

Pipe communication (parent -> child -> parent)

I'm having the following code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <file>\n", argv[0]);
exit(-1);
}
int pfd[2]; // pipe
int pfd2[2]; // pipe2
pid_t pid; // child
if (pipe(pfd) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "error.\n");
exit(-1);
}
if (pipe(pfd2) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "error.\n");
exit(-1);
}
if ((pid = fork()) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "error.\n");
exit(-1);
}
// child process
if (pid == 0) {
close(pfd[1]);
int v[100] = {0};
int k = 0;
int r;
char buf[128];
while ((r = read(pfd[0], buf, sizeof(buf)))) {
buf[r] = '\0';
// some processing here vor the 'v' variable
}
close(pfd[0]); // close the reading end 1st pipe
dup2(pfd2[1], 1); // redirect
close(pfd2[1]);
execlp("bash", "bash", "script.sh", v, NULL);
exit(-1);
} else {
// parent code
close(pfd2[1]);
dup2(pfd2[0], 0);
char buf[16];
int r = 0;
while ((r = read(pfd2[0], buf, sizeof(buf)))) {
buf[r] = '\0';
// read here from second pipe
}
close(pfd2[0]); // close reading end from 2pnd pipe
close(pfd[0]); // close reading end from 1st pipe
dup2(pfd[1], 1); // redirect
execlp("cat", "cat", argv[1], NULL); // exec 'cat' on the given arg
exit(-1);
}
return 0;
}
That respect the following flow: the parent process executes the 'cat' command on the given arg file, then pass it to the child -> the child does some processing and then stores values in the 'v' variable -> then executes the 'script.sh' script with the values taken from the 'v' variable and then passes the output to the parent which will print to stdout the output based on the result from the child.
I'm unsure where should the code for the 2nd pipe reading should go, I'm pretty sure that's the problem right now.
Can anyone take a look at it and point where the problem is? Thanks!

named pipe won't open in C program

I have user read/write permissions on a pipe. Group has read. Other has read. But program gets "stuck" when I run it. Program 1 is the "parent". Program 2 is the "child".
Program 1:
int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
FILE *fptr; //for opening and closing input file
int fdw;// write to pipe;
int fdr; //read to pipe;
pid_t pid;
int inputarray[500];
int arraylength = 0; int j =0;
char *mypipe = "mypipe";
if (argc < 2)
{
printf("Need to provide the file's name. \n");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
//open input file
fptr = fopen(argv[1], "r");
if (fptr==NULL)
{
printf("fopen fail.\n");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
//read input file and fill array with integers
while (!feof(fptr))
{
fscanf(fptr,"%d",&inputarray[arraylength]);
arraylength = arraylength + 1;
}
fclose(fptr); //close input file
pid = fork();
mkfifo(mypipe, 0666);
fdw = open("mypipe",O_WRONLY);
if (fdw < 0)
{
perror("File can't open to write.");
return;
}
int b;
b=3;
write(fdw,&b,sizeof(b));
close(fdw);
if ( pid ==-1)
{
perror("fork");
exit(1);
}
int status; //exit status of child
if(pid==0)//if child process
{
execl("program2", (char*) NULL);
}
else //if parent process
{
wait(&status);}
if((WIFEXITED(status)))
{
printf("Child's exit code %d", WEXITSTATUS(status));
}
else{
printf("Child did not terminate with exit");}
}
Program 2:
int fdl;
int data;
fdl = open("mypipe",O_RDONLY);
if ( fdl < 0)
{
perror("File can't open to read.");
return;
}
read(fdl,&data,sizeof(data));
close(fdl);
The program will block on writing to the fifo until what it's writing is being read. The reading in the child process won't happen since the execl() doesn't happen until after the writing.
Also, it looks like both processes will actually attempt to write to the fifo since you fork() and then immediately start writing.
You should fork(), then test on the returned PID. The parent should then write to the fifo while the child should call execl(). The fifo should be created by the parent before the fork() call.
You should also consider using indent or clang-format to properly format your code, which eases reading it and may expose bugs (forgotten curly braces etc.).
A simple complete example program. The parent writes a string to the child and the child reads it character by character and outputs it to standard output:
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
void parent(void);
void child(void);
int main(void) {
pid_t pid;
mkfifo("myfifo", 0666); /* fails if exists, but we don't care here */
if ((pid = fork()) < 0)
abort();
if (pid == 0)
child(); /* will not return */
else
parent();
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
void parent(void) {
int fd;
int len;
int ret;
int stat;
char *ptr;
char *msg = "Hello World!";
if ((fd = open("myfifo", O_WRONLY)) < 0)
abort();
len = strlen(msg) + 1;
ptr = msg;
puts("Parent: About to write to child");
while ((ret = write(fd, ptr, len)) != 0) {
if (ret > 0) {
len -= ret;
ptr += ret;
} else
abort();
}
close(fd);
puts("Parent: Waiting for child to exit");
wait(&stat);
printf("Parent: Child exited with status %d\n", stat);
}
void child(void) {
int fd;
int ret;
char ch;
if ((fd = open("myfifo", O_RDONLY)) < 0)
abort();
puts("Child: About to read from parent");
while ((ret = read(fd, &ch, 1)) != 0) {
if (ret > 0)
putchar(ch);
else
abort();
}
putchar('\n');
close(fd);
puts("Child: I'm done here");
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
In this case, since both child and parent processes are in the same context, I could have used an anonymous pipe pair created with pipe(), but this illustrates the flow, including the creation of the named pipe.

C - Redirecting stdout after forking of child from parent

I'm writing a program to execute another program as a forked process and redirect it's output to a file or /dev/null on demand.
Currently I have forked and executed the external program using execvp().
Then redirected the stdout from a thread created before forking as the forked process will inherit parents file descriptor table allowing me to redirect after foking.
But, I can initially redirect stdout to a desired file and both parents and child's stdouts are being redirected. However if I try to redirect it again to another file, only parents stdout is redirected, child's stdout stays the same.
Here's the code without all the error checking bits.
struct params {
const char *p;
int fd;
int wait;
};
#define EXIT_NOEXEC 126
#define EXIT_NOTFOUND 127
#define EXIT_MISC 127
static void dofile(struct params* st);
void dupit(const char *p, struct params* st);
void* reload_config(void* para);
int
main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int exit_status, prog_status;
struct params init;
pid_t prog_pid;
dofile(&init);
prog_pid = fork();
if (prog_pid == 0) {
execvp(*argv, argv);
exit_status = (errno == ENOENT) ? EXIT_NOTFOUND : EXIT_NOEXEC;
err(exit_status, "%s", argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
} else {
while (wait(&prog_status) != prog_pid);
return prog_status;
}
}
static void dofile(struct params* st) {
const char *p
p = out.txt;
dupit(p, st);
}
void dupit(const char *p, struct params* st) {
pthread_t tid;
st->wait = 0;
int err = pthread_create(&(tid), NULL, &reload_config, st);
if (err != 0) {
printf("\ncan't create thread :[%s]", strerror(err));
exit(1);
} else {
while (st->wait == 0) {
sleep(1)
}
}
}
void* reload_config(void* para) {
struct params *passed = (struct params *) para;
int pre_config = 3;
int cur_config = 1;
int saved_stdout = dup(STDOUT_FILENO);
char infile[5];
int devNull = open("/dev/null", O_WRONLY);
int file = open("out.txt", O_WRONLY);
FILE *config;
config = fopen("config.txt", "r");
if (access("config.txt", F_OK) != -1) {
while (1) {
fgets(infile, 5, config);
fclose(config);
cur_config = infile[0] - '0';
printf("output from thread, current config = %d\n", cur_config);
if (pre_config != cur_config) {
if (cur_config == 1) {
if (dup2(file, STDOUT_FILENO) == -1) {
err(EXIT_MISC, NULL);
}
} else {
dup2(devNull, STDOUT_FILENO);
}
pre_config = cur_config;
}
if (passed->wait==0) {
passed->wait = 1;
}
sleep(1);
}
} else {
if (dup2(passed->fd, STDOUT_FILENO) == -1) {
err(EXIT_MISC, NULL);
}
}
}
Well, I changed the code a bit so you guys will understand, so some parts will make no sense. But you get the basic idea.
How can I redirect child's stdout as I wish after forking.
Since you asked, here is a simple example. Some shortcuts have been taken for brevity but hopefully it gives you some idea. The program opens file1 and redirects stdout to that file. It then does a fork. The child process writes a counter to stdout (via printf) every 1 second. After a few seconds the parent process uses IPC, a pipe in this example, to tell the child to switch redirect file.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
pid_t pid;
const char *file1 = "file1.txt";
const char *file2 = "file2.txt";
int pipefd[2];
int fd;
int rval;
fd = open(file1, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, S_IRWXU);
if (fd == -1) {
perror("file1 open");
exit(-1);
}
/*
* This pipe will be used by parent process to tell child which file
* to redirect to.
*/
rval = pipe2(pipefd, O_NONBLOCK);
if (fd == -1) {
perror("pipe");
exit(-1);
}
/* Redirect stdout to the file opened before the fork. */
dup2(fd, STDOUT_FILENO);
pid = fork();
if (pid == -1) {
perror("fork");
exit(-1);
} else if (pid == 0) {
/* Child process. */
int ix;
char redirect_file[100];
close(pipefd[1]);
for (ix = 0; ix < 10; ix++) {
printf("%d\n", ix);
sleep(1);
rval = read(pipefd[0], redirect_file, sizeof(redirect_file));
if (rval > 0) {
/*
* Parent process has written a filename to the pipe.
*/
fd = open(redirect_file, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, S_IRWXU);
if (fd == -1) {
perror("file2 open");
exit(-1);
}
/* Ensure previous output has been written to current file. */
fflush(stdout);
/* Change redirect now. */
dup2(fd, STDOUT_FILENO);
}
}
} else {
/* Parent process. */
close(pipefd[0]);
/* Wait a little and then tell child to change redirect file. */
sleep(5);
write(pipefd[1], file2, strlen(file2) + 1);
wait();
}
}
If this program is run you will find that half the child output went to file1 (first redirect) and other half of the output goes to file2 (second redirect).
$ cat file1.txt
0
1
2
3
4
$ cat file2.txt
5
6
7
8
9
One final note. The example program does the first dup before the fork. I did it like that because that's how your code was shown and also to emphasise the before and after fork aspect of the issue. But in real code the conventional way of doing that is to do fork first, then dup and finally exec. The dup is done after the fork so that only the child process gets affected and not the parent (unless that is really what you want).

Shell pipe system in C

I'm trying to make a pipe system for my shell, but it's not working as intended.
void pipes (char *listaCommand[], int end, char **argv)
{
int cont = end;
for (cont;listaCommand[cont]; cont++)
{
if (listaCommand[cont] != NULL)
{
if (!strcmp(listaCommand[cont],"|")){
int pid2, status;
int pipefd[2], ret;
listaCommand[cont] = NULL;
ret = pipe (pipefd);
if (ret < 0) fatal();
/* Now fork. */
pid2 = fork ();
if (pid2 <0) fatal ();
if (pid2 > 0)
{
printf ("P: waiting for child\n");
wait (&status);
close(STDIN_FILENO);
dup(pipefd[0]);
close(pipefd[0]);
close(pipefd[1]);
/*execvp (auxCommand[0], auxCommand);*/
pipes(listaCommand, cont+1, argv);
/*break;*/
}
else
{
close (STDOUT_FILENO);
dup (pipefd[1]);
close (pipefd[1]);
close (pipefd[0]);
}
}
}
}
if (end >= 3)
{
printf("%s \n", listaCommand[end-1]);
}
execvp (listaCommand[end], listaCommand);
printf ("%s: command not found.\n", listaCommand[end]); /* Exec failed. */
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
If I use commands like ls | sort, it works, but if ls has any argument, it doesnt work, because for some reason, listaCommand[cont] where its == "|" is not NULL, so I just get
ls: option -- 'a' invalid.
listaCommand have
[0] = "ls"
[1] = "-al"
[2] = "|"
[3] = "sort"
You don't need to pass the end argument, instead increment the pointer to your command array. You are passing the initial array to the execvp call so it tries to execute ls multiple times. Further, you need a break statement after setting the listaCommand[cont] to NULL because after the iteration cont is incremented. Also I think you need to protect the execvp call so that the parent does not call it after the processing is done.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#define fatal() exit(1)
void pipes (char *listaCommand[], char **argv)
{
printf("pipes %s\n", listaCommand[0]);
int cont = 0;
for (;listaCommand[cont]; cont++) {
if (listaCommand[cont][0] == '|'){
int pid2, status;
int pipefd[2], ret;
listaCommand[cont] = NULL;
ret = pipe (pipefd);
if (ret < 0) fatal();
/* Now fork. */
pid2 = fork ();
if (pid2 <0) fatal ();
if (pid2 > 0)
{
printf ("P: waiting for child\n");
wait (&status);
close(STDIN_FILENO);
dup(pipefd[0]);
close(pipefd[0]);
close(pipefd[1]);
/*execvp (auxCommand[0], auxCommand);*/
pipes(listaCommand + cont + 1, argv);
/*break;*/
}
else
{
close (STDOUT_FILENO);
dup (pipefd[1]);
close (pipefd[1]);
close (pipefd[0]);
break;
}
}
}
if (listaCommand[0]) {
execvp (listaCommand[0], listaCommand);
printf ("%s: command not found.\n", listaCommand[0]); /* Exec failed. */
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}
int main() {
char *args[] = { "ls", "-al", "|", "sort", "|" , "tr", "[a-z]", "[A-Z]", 0 };
pipes(args, 0);
return 0;
}

Thread feeding other MultiThreading

I see it's easy to open pipe between two process using fork, but how we can passing open pipe to threads.
Assume we need to pass out of PROGRAM A to PROGRAM B "may by more than one thread",
PROGRAM B send his output to PROGRAM C
EDIT:
I come again after modifying the code to become more easy for reading.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
void *thread1(void *arg) {
int status, fd[2];
pid_t pid;
pipe(fd);
pid = fork();
if (pid == 0) {
int fd2 = *((int *) (arg));
dup2(STDIN_FILENO, fd2);
close(fd[0]);
dup2(fd[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(fd[1]);
execvp("PROGRAM B", NULL);
exit(1);
} else {
close(fd[1]);
dup2(fd[0], STDIN_FILENO);
close(fd[0]);
execl("PROGRAM C", NULL);
wait(&status);
return NULL;
}
}
int main(void) {
FILE *fpipe;
char *command = "PROGRAM A";
char buffer[1024];
if (!(fpipe = (FILE*) popen(command, "r"))) {
perror("Problems with pipe");
exit(1);
}
char* outfile = "out.dat";
//FILE* f = fopen (outfile, "wb");
//int fd = fileno( f );
int fd[2];
fd[0] = open(outfile, O_WRONLY);
pthread_t thid;
if (pthread_create(&thid, NULL, thread1, fd) != 0) {
perror("pthread_create() error");
exit(1);
}
int len;
while (read(fpipe, buffer, sizeof (buffer)) != 0) {
len = strlen(buffer);
write(fd[0], buffer, len);
}
pclose(fpipe);
return (0);
}
For intra-process messaging, POSIX queues will probably suit your needs better than pipes. Check out man mq_overview (or online).

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