UNIX pipes on C block on read
- by Toni Cárdenas
I'm struggling to implement a shell with pipelines for class.
typedef struct {
char** cmd;
int in[2];
int out[2];
} cmdio;
cmdio cmds[MAX_PIPE + 1];
Commands in the pipeline are read and stored in cmds.
cmdio[i].in is the pair of file descriptors of the input pipe returned by pipe(). For the first command, which reads from terminal input, it is just {fileno(stdin), -1}. cmdin[i].outis similar for the output pipe/terminal output. cmdio[i].in is the same as cmd[i-1].out. For example:
$ ls -l | sort | wc
CMD: ls -l
IN: 0 -1
OUT: 3 4
CMD: sort
IN: 3 4
OUT: 5 6
CMD: wc
IN: 5 6
OUT: -1 1
We pass each command to process_command, which does a number of things:
for (cmdi = 0; cmds[cmdi].cmd != NULL; cmdi++) {
process_command(&cmds[cmdi]);
}
Now, inside process_command:
if (!(pid_fork = fork())) {
dup2(cmd->in[0], fileno(stdin));
dup2(cmd->out[1], fileno(stdout));
if (cmd->in[1] >= 0) {
if (close(cmd->in[1])) {
perror(NULL);
}
}
if (cmd->out[0] >= 0) {
if (close(cmd->out[0])) {
perror(NULL);
}
}
execvp(cmd->cmd[0], cmd->cmd);
exit(-1);
}
The problem is that reading from the pipe blocks forever:
COMMAND $ ls | wc
Created pipe, in: 5 out: 6
Foreground pid: 9042, command: ls, Exited, info: 0
[blocked running read() within wc]
If, instead of exchanging the process with execvp, I just do this:
if (!(pid_fork = fork())) {
dup2(cmd->in[0], fileno(stdin));
dup2(cmd->out[1], fileno(stdout));
if (cmd->in[1] >= 0) {
if (close(cmd->in[1])) {
perror(NULL);
}
}
if (cmd->out[0] >= 0) {
if (close(cmd->out[0])) {
perror(NULL);
}
}
char buf[6];
read(fileno(stdin), buf, 5);
buf[5] = '\0';
printf("%s\n", buf);
exit(0);
}
It happens to work:
COMMAND $ cmd1 | cmd2 | cmd3 | cmd4 | cmd5
Pipe creada, in: 11 out: 12
Pipe creada, in: 13 out: 14
Pipe creada, in: 15 out: 16
Pipe creada, in: 17 out: 18
hola!
Foreground pid: 9251, command: cmd1, Exited, info: 0
Foreground pid: 9252, command: cmd2, Exited, info: 0
Foreground pid: 9253, command: cmd3, Exited, info: 0
Foreground pid: 9254, command: cmd4, Exited, info: 0
hola!
Foreground pid: 9255, command: cmd5, Exited, info: 0
What could be the problem?
