Trying to use pipe to read from / write to another program - c

Question

I'm trying to write a program which read output of another program and write to the program as input.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(void)
{
char str[30];
printf("Input string : ");
fflush(stdout);
scanf("%s", &str);
fflush(stdout);
printf("entered string is %s\n", str);
return 0;
}
This program1 is a simple program reading input from stdin and print the string entered.
And here in the program2, I tried to create 2 pipes and execute the program1.
And read the output of program1 and get user input and deliver the string user entered to program1.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <signal.h>
typedef struct pipe_rw
{
pid_t cpid;
int pipe_r[2];
int pipe_w[2];
} RWPIPE;
char *get_user_input(void)
{
char buf[128];
char *input;
char ch;
int n;
int len = 0;
memset(buf, 0x0, 128);
while((ch = fgetc(stdin)) != 0xa)
{
buf[len] = ch;
len++;
}
input = malloc(sizeof(char) * (len));
strncpy(input, buf, (len));
return input;
}
int pclose_rw(RWPIPE *rwp)
{
int status, ret = 0;
if (rwp)
{
if (rwp->cpid > 0)
{
kill(rwp->cpid, SIGTERM);
do {
ret = waitpid(rwp->cpid, &status, WUNTRACED|WCONTINUED);
} while (!WIFEXITED(status) && !WIFSIGNALED(status));
}
close(rwp->pipe_r[0]);
close(rwp->pipe_w[1]);
free(rwp);
}
return ret;
}
RWPIPE *popen_rw(const char *command)
{
RWPIPE *rwp = (RWPIPE *)malloc(sizeof(*rwp));
if (rwp == NULL)
return NULL;
memset(rwp, 0x00, sizeof(*rwp));
if (pipe(rwp->pipe_r) != 0 || pipe(rwp->pipe_w) != 0)
{
free(rwp);
return NULL;
}
rwp->cpid = fork();
if (rwp->cpid == -1)
{
free(rwp);
return NULL;
}
if (rwp->cpid == 0)
{
dup2(rwp->pipe_w[0], STDIN_FILENO);
dup2(rwp->pipe_r[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(rwp->pipe_r[0]);
close(rwp->pipe_r[1]);
close(rwp->pipe_w[0]);
close(rwp->pipe_w[1]);
execl(command, command, NULL);
printf("Error: fail to exec command - %s ..\n", command);
exit (1);
}
else
{
close(rwp->pipe_r[1]);
close(rwp->pipe_w[0]);
}
return rwp;
}
ssize_t read_p(RWPIPE *rwp, void *buf, size_t count)
{
return read(rwp->pipe_r[0], buf, count);
}
ssize_t write_p(RWPIPE *rwp, const void *buf, size_t count)
{
return write(rwp->pipe_w[1], buf, count);
}
int main(void)
{
char rbuf[BUFSIZ], wbuf[BUFSIZ];
int ret, len, n = 0;
char *string;
RWPIPE *rwp = popen_rw("./read_write");
if (rwp == NULL)
{
printf("Error: fail to open command ..\n");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
while (1)
{
memset(rbuf, 0x00, sizeof(rbuf));
if (read_p(rwp, rbuf, sizeof(rbuf)) < 1)
{
printf("No more input..\n");
break;
}
printf("%s", rbuf);
string = get_user_input();
len = strlen(string);
ret = write_p(rwp, string, len);
if (ret != len)
{
printf("Write %d bytes (expected %d) ..\n", ret, len);
break;
}
printf("end");
}
pclose_rw(rwp);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
If run the program2 reads output of program1 successfully.
And it gets user input but it failed to give the string entered from user to program1.
[root#localhost test_code]# ./rw_pipe
Input string : 1234
^C
Please give me some ideas why it works like this.

Answer 1

Your primary problem is that the data written to the child does not end with a newline, so the child is not aware that the message is complete (it isn't complete) and the child is still busy reading while the parent is waiting for a response — a deadlock.
This code adds some instrumentation and fixes the problem by including the newline in the string read by get_input().
The original program expects two lots of input (one in response to the prompt from read_write, the other in response to the echoed output), but dies from a SIGPIPE when it tries to send the second input to the now-exited child. The code below circumvents that by ignoring SIGPIPE signals, which means that the parent gets a write error instead of being killed by the signal.
There's an unusual control flow between the two programs, and if you made read_write into an iterative program, you'd see that it generates two outputs for a single input. That's not the way it's usually done, of course. Fixing that is outside of the scope of the immediate exercise, though.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <signal.h>
typedef struct pipe_rw
{
pid_t cpid;
int pipe_r[2];
int pipe_w[2];
} RWPIPE;
static char *get_user_input(void)
{
char buf[128];
char *input;
char ch;
size_t len = 0;
while((ch = fgetc(stdin)) != '\n' && ch != EOF && len < sizeof(buf) - 2)
buf[len++] = ch;
buf[len++] = '\n';
buf[len] = '\0';
input = malloc(sizeof(char) * (len + 1));
strncpy(input, buf, (len + 1));
printf("Got: [%s]\n", input);
return input;
}
static int pclose_rw(RWPIPE *rwp)
{
int status, ret = 0;
if (rwp)
{
if (rwp->cpid > 0)
{
kill(rwp->cpid, SIGTERM);
do {
ret = waitpid(rwp->cpid, &status, WUNTRACED|WCONTINUED);
} while (!WIFEXITED(status) && !WIFSIGNALED(status));
}
close(rwp->pipe_r[0]);
close(rwp->pipe_w[1]);
free(rwp);
}
return ret;
}
static RWPIPE *popen_rw(const char *command)
{
RWPIPE *rwp = (RWPIPE *)malloc(sizeof(*rwp));
if (rwp == NULL)
return NULL;
memset(rwp, 0x00, sizeof(*rwp));
if (pipe(rwp->pipe_r) != 0 || pipe(rwp->pipe_w) != 0)
{
free(rwp);
return NULL;
}
rwp->cpid = fork();
if (rwp->cpid == -1)
{
free(rwp);
return NULL;
}
if (rwp->cpid == 0)
{
dup2(rwp->pipe_w[0], STDIN_FILENO);
dup2(rwp->pipe_r[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(rwp->pipe_r[0]);
close(rwp->pipe_r[1]);
close(rwp->pipe_w[0]);
close(rwp->pipe_w[1]);
execl(command, command, NULL);
fprintf(stderr, "Error: fail to exec command '%s'.\n", command);
exit (1);
}
else
{
close(rwp->pipe_r[1]);
close(rwp->pipe_w[0]);
}
return rwp;
}
static ssize_t read_p(RWPIPE *rwp, void *buf, size_t count)
{
return read(rwp->pipe_r[0], buf, count);
}
static ssize_t write_p(RWPIPE *rwp, const void *buf, size_t count)
{
return write(rwp->pipe_w[1], buf, count);
}
int main(void)
{
char rbuf[BUFSIZ];
int ret, len;
char *string;
signal(SIGPIPE, SIG_IGN);
RWPIPE *rwp = popen_rw("./read_write");
if (rwp == NULL)
{
printf("Error: fail to open command ..\n");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
while (1)
{
memset(rbuf, 0x00, sizeof(rbuf));
if (read_p(rwp, rbuf, sizeof(rbuf)) <= 0)
{
printf("No more input..\n");
break;
}
printf("From child: [%s]\n", rbuf);
string = get_user_input();
len = strlen(string);
printf("Length %d: [%s]\n", len, string);
ret = write_p(rwp, string, len);
if (ret != len)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Write %d bytes (expected %d) ..\n", ret, len);
break;
}
printf("end cycle\n");
}
printf("End of loop\n");
pclose_rw(rwp);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
Sample run
The program is rwpipe53; the input I typed was Ocelot and Grumble.
$ ./rwpipe53
From child: [Input string : ]
Ocelot
Got: [Ocelot
]
Length 7: [Ocelot
]
end cycle
From child: [entered string is Ocelot
]
Grumble
Got: [Grumble
]
Length 8: [Grumble
]
Write -1 bytes (expected 8) ..
End of loop
$
Note how the square brackets (any pair of marker symbols can be used if you prefer) shows where the data starts and ends. I find that a valuable technique when debugging code.