On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:35:58 -0000, NMS <nathanms...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is there a cross-platform way to create a new process and get its i/o
streams? Like java.lang.Process?
No. It different on windows and unix platforms, tho most/many of the unix
platforms are similar.
std.process is rather limited in it's current incarnation but I think
Steve is working on a bit update..
I have misplaced the pipestream and processstream code I wrote ages ago
which did what you want, otherwise I'd just send it to you. So, best I
can do is describe the process.
On windows you call Win32 functions, requiring you link with the
appropriate windows libs - to find out which ones search for the function
names I am about to describe in MSDN online.
To start a child process with input handles..
- You call CreatePipe for each input (stdin, stdout, stderr) this gives
you 2 handles for each pipe, one handle is for the child process, the
other for the parent (think of the cans on string you used to use as a kid)
- Pro tip; you now want to call DuplicateHandle on the parent handle for
each pipe to remove 'inheritance' - this stops the child process
inheriting the handle (which would result in 2 open handles to the pipe,
and closure of the parent handle would not be detected by the child).
After duplication you close the original parent side inheritable handles.
- Call CreateProcess to start the process. In flags specify
STARTF_USESTDHANDLES and assign the child end of each of the pipes to each
input.
- Close the child pipe handles (in the parent) that were passed to
CreateProcess.
To read from the child
- Call PeekNamedPipe or ReadFile on the parent end of the pipe that was
passed to the child as it's stdout.
To write to the child
- Call WriteFile on the parent end of the pipe that was passed to the
child as it's stdin.
To detect the child termination
- CreateProcess returns a thread handle and a process handle, you can
wait on either with WaitForSingleObject (I typically use the process
handle and close the thread handle immediately after starting the child).
I haven't done this sort of thing on unix for ages and I have no good code
to hand so someone else will have to help you out with this..
R
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