Read and write using pipes - c

Question

I have a program with 2 child processes which has to do the following:
use the parent to read data from a file 'data.txt' and write in a pipe
use a child to read the data from the pipe and filter the lowercase letters
use another child to write the filtered letters in a new file, each on a new line
I tried to do it and it works... kinda. The problem is, it writes the filtered letters in the desired file, but the program does not stop. What am I doing wrong?
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <string.h>
int parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[2], child1Child2FileDescriptors[2];
void parentProcess()
{
close(child1Child2FileDescriptors[0]);
close(child1Child2FileDescriptors[1]);
close(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[0]);
int fileDescriptor = open("data.txt", O_RDONLY);
char buffer[8];
int store;
while ((store = read(fileDescriptor, buffer, 8)))
{
write(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[1], buffer, store);
}
close(fileDescriptor);
close(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[1]);
}
void child1Process()
{
close(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[1]);
close(child1Child2FileDescriptors[0]);
char buffer[8];
int store, count = 0;
while ((store = read(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[0], buffer, 8)))
{
for (int i = 0; i < store; i++)
{
if (buffer[i] >= 'a' && buffer[i] <= 'z')
{
count++;
write(child1Child2FileDescriptors[1], &buffer[i], sizeof(buffer[i]));
}
}
}
printf("CHILD 1 FINISHED FILTERING\n");
close(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[0]);
close(child1Child2FileDescriptors[1]);
exit(count);
}
void child2Process()
{
close(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[0]);
close(child1Child2FileDescriptors[1]);
mode_t mode = S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH;
char *fileName = "stat.txt";
int newFileDescriptor = creat(fileName, mode);
char buffer;
int store;
while ((store = read(child1Child2FileDescriptors[0], &buffer, 1)))
{
write(newFileDescriptor, &buffer, sizeof(buffer));
write(newFileDescriptor, "\n", 1);
}
close(newFileDescriptor);
printf("CHILD 2 FINISHED WRITING'\n");
close(child1Child2FileDescriptors[0]);
close(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[1]);
exit(444);
}
int main(int argc, char const *argv[])
{
if (pipe(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors) < 0)
{
printf("ERROR CREATING PIPE\n");
exit(-100);
}
if (pipe(child1Child2FileDescriptors) < 0)
{
printf("ERROR CREATING PIPE\n");
exit(-101);
}
pid_t child1PID = fork();
if (child1PID < 0)
{
printf("ERROR CREATING CHILD\n");
exit(-200);
}
if (!child1PID)
{
child1Process();
}
pid_t child2PID = fork();
if (child2PID < 0)
{
printf("ERROR CREATING CHILD\n");
exit(-201);
}
if (!child2PID)
{
child2Process();
}
parentProcess();
int status1, status2;
waitpid(child1PID, &status1, 0);
waitpid(child2PID, &status2, 0);
printf("CHILD 1 TERMINATED WITH EXIT STATUS: %d\n", WEXITSTATUS(status1));
printf("CHILD 2 TERMINATED WITH EXIT STATUS: %d\n", WEXITSTATUS(status2));
return 0;
}

Answer 1

The read loop in child1process will never terminate, because child2 still has the write side of that pipe open. You need to execute:
close(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[1]);
before you enter the read loop. The general rule is that if a process isn't going to use a file descriptor, it should close it immediately.

Answer 2

your while ((store = read(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[0], buffer, 8))) loop is never gonna end.
The parent needs to say to the child that there is no more data coming and it shall not do another read.
You can do this by sending a special byte.
Example :
in the parent:
char endByte = 0x1;
write(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[1], &endByte, 1);
//then close
in the while loop of the child :
if(buffer[i] == 0x1){
printf("CHILD 1 FINISHED FILTERING\n");
fflush(stdout);
close(parentChildpipeFileDescriptors[0]);
close(child1Child2FileDescriptors[1]);
exit(count);
};