Forked process isn't calling function in C - c

Question

C beginner here. The function send_chars_to_reducers does not appeared to be getting called inside the forked processes created in fork_mappers function.
C Code
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <errno.h>
#define BUFFER_SIZE 1024
#define ALPHA_OFFSET 97
#define LETTERS 26
const int NUM_OF_MAPPERS = 4;
const int NUM_OF_REDUCERS = 26;
const int PIPE_READ_END = 0;
const int PIPE_WRITE_END = 1;
const int PIPE_BUFFER_SIZE = 1000;
int mapper_pipes[4][2];
int reducer_pipes[26][2];
void pipe_wrapper(int pipefd[]) {
int ret = pipe(pipefd);
if (ret == -1) {
perror("Error. Failed when trying to create pipes.");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}
void create_mapper_pipes(void) {
int i;
for (i = 0; i < NUM_OF_MAPPERS; i++) {
pipe_wrapper(mapper_pipes[i]);
}
}
void create_reducer_pipes(void) {
int i;
for (i=0; i < NUM_OF_REDUCERS; i++) {
pipe_wrapper(reducer_pipes[i]);
}
}
// Prints an error msg and exits if one occurs. Else, returns the system call value.
int print_if_err(int syscall_val, const char* syscall_name) {
if (syscall_val < 0) {
perror(syscall_name);
exit(errno);
} else {
//No syscall error we can return
return syscall_val;
}
}
void send_chars_to_reducers(void) {
printf("hello from send_chars_to_reducers\n");
}
void fork_mappers(void) {
/* Constants useful to all children */
char ibuf[PIPE_BUFFER_SIZE]; // input pipe buffer
int rlen = 0;
int i;
for (i=0; i<NUM_OF_MAPPERS; i++) {
pid_t mapper_pid = print_if_err(fork(), "fork");
close(mapper_pipes[i][PIPE_WRITE_END]);
if (mapper_pid == 0) {
rlen = print_if_err(read(mapper_pipes[i][PIPE_READ_END], ibuf, 1000), "read");
while(rlen > 0) {
send_chars_to_reducers();
printf("read line from forked_mappers, p%d: %s\n", i, ibuf);
rlen = print_if_err(read(mapper_pipes[i][PIPE_READ_END], ibuf, 1000), "read");
}
_exit(0);
}
}
}
void fork_reducers(void) {
printf("hello from fork_reducers\n");
int i;
for (i = 0; i < NUM_OF_REDUCERS; i++) {
pid_t reducer_pid = print_if_err(fork(), "fork");
if (reducer_pid == 0) {
while (1 == 1) {
}
}
}
}
void send_lines_to_mappers(void) {
int wlen = 0;
char obuf[PIPE_BUFFER_SIZE];
int ob_size;
int count = 0;
char buff[BUFFER_SIZE]; // a buffer for each line of the file
FILE *input_file = fopen("input.txt", "r");
// read the input file line by line
while(fgets(buff, BUFFER_SIZE, input_file) > 0) {
printf("read line from send_lin_to_mappers: %s\n", buff);
ob_size = sizeof buff;
switch(count) {
case 0 :
write(mapper_pipes[0][PIPE_WRITE_END], buff, ob_size);
close(mapper_pipes[0][PIPE_WRITE_END]);
break;
case 1 :
write(mapper_pipes[1][PIPE_WRITE_END], buff, ob_size);
close(mapper_pipes[1][PIPE_WRITE_END]);
break;
case 2 :
write(mapper_pipes[2][PIPE_WRITE_END], buff, ob_size);
close(mapper_pipes[2][PIPE_WRITE_END]);
break;
case 3 :
write(mapper_pipes[3][PIPE_WRITE_END], buff, ob_size);
close(mapper_pipes[3][PIPE_WRITE_END]);
break;
default :
printf("you did something wrong in send_lines_to_mappers loop");
}
count++;
}
fclose(input_file);
}
int main(void) {
// Setup the mapper pipes
create_mapper_pipes();
create_reducer_pipes();
fork_reducers();
fork_mappers();
send_lines_to_mappers();
return 0;
}
Output
hello from fork_reducers
read line from send_lin_to_mappers: I like coding in C.
read line from send_lin_to_mappers: I like manually allocating memory, and opening the registers window in Visual Studio to see the values of the eax register and blitting graphics to the screen and all the stuff that Dr. Dobbs wrote about in the 90s.
read line from send_lin_to_mappers: My programming friends seem to believe that understanding this level of programming is good in a hand-wavy, theoretical sense, but when you consider all the web development, Java frameworks, and existing libraries most programmers today rely on, it's hard to really pin down a solid answer to the question "Why learn C?"
read line from send_lin_to_mappers: This is my attempt to answer that question, and I believe it comes down to the basic programming concept of abstraction.

Answer 1

The problem is the number of processes which share handles.
Each reducer has the pipes open
Each mapper has the pipes open, so the pipes are never properly closed ( the reducers are in a busy loop.
if (mapper_pid == 0) {
int j;
for( j = 0; j < NUM_OF_MAPPERS; j++ ){
close( mapper_pipes[j][PIPE_WRITE_END]);
if( j != i ){
close(mapper_pipes[j][PIPE_READ_END]);
}
}
I commented out the reducer fork's and then fixed the mapper forks to close all the pipe handles in the child except the one we want to read from.
This started to make the program work.
From pipe documentation, you should close the unused bits of a pipe. But you have pre-opened all the pipes (probably better localizing them), and have therefore got to close all the unused handles in the sub-processes to have the OS tidy up the resource correctly