For my piping function, I am creating two child processes with fork() and attempting to pipe the contents of the first over to the second child process before calling execvp(). I am doing something wrong, as if I do ls -la | more, the output is a vertical list of the files in the directory. I am very new to piping in c (and c) so chances are that it is an overlooked mistake. Any help is appreciated!
void handle_pipe_cmds(char **args1, char **args2){
char ** word1 = parse_space(*args1);
char ** word2 = parse_space(*args2);
int p[2];
pipe(p);
pid_t pid = fork();
if (pid == -1) {
printf("CANNOT FORK!");
} else if (pid == 0) {
dup2(p[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(p[1]);
int status = execvp(word1[0], word1);
if (status != 0) {
printf("%s failed\n", word1[0]);
exit(1);
}
exit(0);
} else {
close(p[1]);
wait(NULL);
}
pid = fork();
if (pid == -1) {
printf("CANNOT FORK!");
} else if (pid == 0) {
dup2(p[0], STDIN_FILENO);
close(p[1]);
close(p[0]);
int status = execvp(word2[0], word2);
if (status != 0) {
printf("%s failed\n", word2[0]);
exit(1);
}
exit(0);
} else {
close(p[1]);
close(p[0]);
wait(NULL);
}
}
If I do ls -la | more, the output is a vertical list of the files in the directory.
That is because the ls program is aware of whether its output stream is a terminal or not, and acts different in both cases. On a terminal, it (may) print colorized entries, and multiple items per line; to a pipe, or a file, it will print just one entry per line with no color. See man ls for details.
Related
I'm trying to simulate a unix shell in a C program and it's still in the beginning and working for at most two pipes. I have a vector of commands (char *com[3][3]), which were separated considering the character "|", but my question is how to proceed to more pipes in a for loop? In the follow the current implementation, I'm trying to execute 3 commands separeted by pipes:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv){
//Vector with positions of pipes found, position 0 reserved for the total amount of commands.
char* com[3][3] = { { "/bin/ls", "-la", 0 },
{ "/bin/grep", ".", 0}, { "/usr/bin/wc", "-l", 0 }};
//EXECUTE COMMANDS
pid_t fork1, fork2, fork3;
int fd1[2], fd2[2];
if(pipe(fd1) < 0){
perror("pipe1");
}
if(pipe(fd2) < 0){
perror("pipe2");
}
//COMMAND 1
fork1 = fork();
if(fork1 == 0){
dup2(fd1[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(fd1[0]);
close(fd2[0]);
close(fd2[1]);
execvp(com[0][0], com[0]);
perror("execvp 1");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
//COMMAND 2
fork2 = fork();
if(fork2 == 0){
dup2(fd1[0], STDIN_FILENO);
dup2(fd2[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(fd1[1]);
close(fd2[0]);
execvp(com[1][0], com[1]);
perror("execvp 2");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
//COMMAND 3
fork3 = fork();
if(fork3 == 0){
dup2(fd2[0], STDIN_FILENO);
close(fd2[1]);
close(fd1[0]);
close(fd1[1]);
execvp(com[2][0], com[2]);
perror("execvp 3");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
close(fd1[0]);
close(fd1[1]);
close(fd2[0]);
close(fd2[1]);
waitpid(-1, NULL, 0);
waitpid(-1, NULL, 0);
waitpid(-1, NULL, 0);
return 0;
}
How do I make to com[n][3], in a for loop?
"To iterate is human, to recurse is divine" -- Anon.
I'd attack this with a recursive approach. This is one of those very rare occasions when being a Three Star programmer is almost justified. ;)
This is completely untested, but should get you pointed in the correct direction.
// You'll need to rearrange your command strings into this three dimensional array
// of pointers, but by doing so you allow an arbitrary number of commands, each with
// an arbitrary number of arguments.
int executePipe(char ***commands, int inputfd)
{
// commands is NULL terminated
if (commands[1] == NULL)
{
// If we get here there's no further commands to execute, so run the
// current one, and send its result back.
pid_t pid;
int status;
if ((pid = fork()) == 0)
{
// Set up stdin for this process. Leave stdout alone so output goes to the
// terminal. If you want '>' / '>>' redirection to work, you'd do that here
if (inputfd != -1)
{
dup2(inputfd, STDIN_FILENO);
close(inputfd);
}
execvp(commands[0][0], commands[0]);
perror("execvp");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
else if (pid < 0)
{
perror("fork");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
waitpid(pid, &status, 0);
return status;
}
else
{
// Somewhat similar to the above, except we also redirect stdout for the
// next process in the chain
int fds[2];
if (pipe(fds) != 0)
{
perror("pipe");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
pid_t pid;
int status;
if ((pid = fork()) == 0)
{
// Redirect stdin if needed
if (inputfd != -1)
{
dup2(inputfd, STDIN_FILENO);
close(inputfd);
}
dup2(fds[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(fds[1]);
execvp(commands[0][0], commands[0]);
perror("execvp");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
else if (pid < 0)
{
perror("fork");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
// This is where we handle piped commands. We've just executed
// commands[0], and we know there's another command in the chain.
// We have everything needed to execute that next command, so call
// ourselves recursively to do the heavy lifting.
status = executePipe(++commands, fds[0]);
// As written, this returns the exit status of the very last command
// in the chain. If you pass &status as the second parameter here
// to waitpid, you'll get the exit status of the first command.
// It is left as an exercise to the reader to figure how to get the
// the complete list of exit statuses
waitpid(pid, NULL, 0);
return status;
}
}
To use this, call it initially with the commands array set up as described, and inputfd initially -1.
If you want to handle < type redirection, you probably want to check for inputfd == -1 at the very top, do redirection if requested and replace inputfd with the appropriate value before entering the remainder of the body.
I have written the below method to fork and execute commands separated by multiple pipes( test with : ls -lrt | grep "check" | wc -l . However it is not resulting in any output, could any one please spot my mistake. Thanks.
void execCmd (pInfo *info)
{
int i, j, k, m;
struct comType *comm, *comm1, *comm2;
if(info->noOfPipes > 2)
{
// DOES NOT WORK
printf("Start\n");
comm=&(info->cArr[0]);
comm2=&(info->cArr[(info->ppNum)-1]);
int fds[2];
pipe(fds);
pid_t pid = fork();
if(pid == -1)
{
perror("fork failed");
exit(1);
}
if(pid == 0)
{
printf("1st child execution here\n");
close(fds[0]);
dup2(fds[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(fds[1]);
execvp(comm->cmd,comm->parms);
}
for (k=1;k<=((info->ppNum)-1);k++)
{
printf("For loop executionn number %d",k);
comm1=&(info->cArr[k]);
printf ("comm 1 : %s\n",comm1->cmd);
pid = fork();
if(pid == -1)
{
perror("fork failed");
exit(1);
}
if(pid == 0)
{
//2nd to n-1 child process
dup2(fds[0], STDIN_FILENO);
close(fds[0]);
dup2(fds[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(fds[1]);
execvp(comm1->cmd,comm1->parms);
}
wait(NULL);
}
pid = fork();
if(pid == -1)
{
perror("fork failed");
exit(1);
}
if(pid == 0)
{
//nth child process
printf("Last child execution\n");
close(fds[1]);
dup2(fds[0], STDIN_FILENO);
close(fds[0]);
execvp(comm2->cmd,comm2->parms);
}
close(fds[0]);
close(fds[1]);
wait(NULL);
wait(NULL);
}
}
This following code should give you an idea how to implement the pipelining:
#define STDIN 0
#define STDOUT 1
void exec_cmd(struct comType cmd) {
execvp(cmd->cmd, cmd->params);
}
void pipeCmds(struct comType* cmds) {
int fd[cmds_length * 2] = {0};
pid_t pid = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < cmds_length; i++) {
if (pid = fork() == 0) {
//child: make this cmd's output the other cmd's input
pipe(fd + (2*i) );
close(STDOUT);
dup(fd[i]);
if(i > 0) {
close(STDIN);
dup(fd[i-1]);
}
exec_cmd(cmds[i]);
close(fd[i]);
}
}
}
Note that the main idea is that each command is executed in a separate process (via fork) and the output goes to the next command's input rather than to the default stdout(with file descriptor 1), and the same for the input - stdin (file descriptor 0).
I am trying to write a test program that uses pipes to pass information between 3 linux commands. The bash equivalent of "ls | wc | wc". Below is my code
The only output i am getting is . The program is stuck there without exiting.
./a.out
starting main
creating pipe first
The expected output in bash is something like
ls | wc | wc
1 3 24
Edit:On running strace i could see that main process is on wait4, the two wc processes are stuck on read(0). As i guessed, its because wc is not getting the EOF. Why is this so?.Can someone help me to identify the issue?
#include<unistd.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<stdio.h>
int p[2];
int p1[2];
int r=0;
int fork1(void)
{
int pid;
pid = fork();
if(pid == -1) {
perror("fork");
exit(1);
}
return pid;
}
int main (int argc, char const* argv[])
{
printf("starting main\n");
printf("creating pipe first\n");
if(pipe(p)<0) {
perror("pipe");
exit(1);
}
if(pipe(p1)<0) {
perror("pipe");
exit(1);
}
if(fork1()==0) {
//send output to p
close(1);
dup(p[1]);
close(p[0]); close(p[1]);
execlp("ls","ls",NULL);
exit(0);
}
if(fork1() == 0) {
close(1);//write to p1
dup(p1[1]);
close(p1[1]); close(p1[0]);
close(0);//read from p
dup(p[0]);
close(p[0]); close(p[1]);
execlp("wc","wc",NULL);
exit(0);
}
if(fork1() == 0)
{
close(0);//read from p1
dup(p1[0]);
close(p1[0]); close(p1[1]);
execlp("wc","wc",NULL);
exit(0);
}
close(p[0]); close(p[1]); close(p1[0]); close(p1[1]);
wait(&r);wait(&r);wait(&r);
printf("parent done\n");
return 0;
}
The problem was that i was not closing all the pipes in each branch.
I had to close p,p1 in all the three forks and the parent. Once i added those, it was working
I'm trying to fork and then execute two or more piped commands in the child process. My idea is to use a while loop to continuously fork and execute the command in one process while continuing the loop in the other. Here's my code:
void
execute_pipe_command(command_t *c)
{
command_t command = *c;
pid_t pid = fork();
if(pid > 0) {
int status;
while(waitpid(pid, &status, 0) < 0)
continue;
if(!WIFEXITED(status))
error(1, errno, "Child exit error");
command->status = WEXITSTATUS(status);
return;
} else if (pid == 0) {
while(command->type == PIPE_COMMAND)
{
int fd[2]; pipe(fd);
pid = fork();
if(pid > 0) {
close(fd[0]);
dup2(fd[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
char **args = command->u.command[1]->u.word;
execvp(args[0], args);
} else if (pid == 0) {
close(fd[1]);
dup2(fd[0], STDIN_FILENO);
command = command->u.command[0];
continue;
} else {
error(1, errno, "forking error");
}
}
char **args = command->u.word;
execvp(args[0], args);
} else {
error(1, errno, "forking error");
}
}
Command is a struct that hold it's type, and if it's a pipe command it holds left and right children commands. Otherwise if it's a simple command it holds an array of strings that make up the command.
When I call this function with a pipe command like ls | cat it should execute the commands, but instead it behaves weirdly. The first two piped commands will run but won't give control back to the program. Instead it'll hang. The subsequent commands are just ignored. So if I give this ls | cat | wc this function will print ls and won't exit until I give a SIGINT.
I'm pretty much confused as to what's going on. I'd appreciate if someone could point out the problem.
while (command->type == PIPE_COMMAND) is always true! This is way it hangs.
I am implementing a shell in C. This is the function i use for piping. When i put "ls | a" in the code (i.e. pipe a valid command with invalid one),It doesnt exit the child process like it should. How do i make it go back to main function?
same thing happens when i do ps | ls or ps | pwd etc. but ls | ps works the same as in bash. i know ls | ps or ps | ls dont make sense but atleast they should give same output as bash.
void exec3(char **args, char **args2){
int fd[2];
pid_t pid,pid1;
int status;
pipe(fd);
int e=0;
if ((pid = fork()) < 0) {
printf("*** ERROR: forking child process failed\n");
exit(1);
}
else if ((pid1 = fork()) < 0) {
printf("*** ERROR: forking child process failed\n");
exit(1);
}
else if (pid == 0 && pid1!=0){
printf("in 1\n");
close(1);
dup(fd[1]);
close(fd[0]);
close(fd[1]);
if(execvp(args[0],args)<0){
printf("**error in exec");
close(fd[0]);
close(fd[1]);
exit(1);
}
//printf("exiting 1\n");
exit(0);
}
else if (pid1 == 0 && pid!=0) {
printf("in 2\n");
close(0);
dup(fd[0]);
close(fd[1]);
close(fd[0]);
if((e=execvp(args2[0],args2))<0){
printf("**error in exec2 ");
close(fd[0]);
close(fd[1]);
exit(1);
}
exit(0);
}
else {
close(fd[0]);
close(fd[1]);
fflush(stdout) ;
while (wait(&status) != pid);
while (wait(&status) != pid1);
}
}
You are close to the solution. Look at how popen() is implemented, that is what you are trying to do.