Subprocess¶
Usage
use Subprocess;
or
import Subprocess;
Support launching and interacting with other programs.
Using functions in this module, one can create a subprocess and possibly capture its output. It is also possible to provide input to a subprocess.
To start a subprocess, use spawn
or spawnshell
. To wait for
the subprocess process to finish, use the subprocess.wait
or
subprocess.communicate
functions.
This example program produces a listing of files in the current directory with
names that begin with test.
by using the ls
command. The
output will be mixed in with the Chapel program’s output.
use Subprocess;
var sub = spawn(["ls", "test.*"]);
sub.wait();
This version also runs the ls
command but uses a pipe
to read the output from the ls
command.
use Subprocess;
var sub = spawn(["ls", "test.*"], stdout=pipeStyle.pipe);
var line:string;
while sub.stdout.readLine(line) {
write("ls returned: ", line);
}
sub.wait();
Here is an example program that provides input to a subprocess in addition to
capturing its output. This version uses the cat
command, which just prints
back its input.
use Subprocess;
var sub = spawn(["cat"], stdin=pipeStyle.bufferAll, stdout=pipeStyle.pipe);
sub.stdin.writeln("Hello");
sub.stdin.writeln("World");
sub.communicate();
var line:string;
while sub.stdout.readLine(line) {
write("Got line: ", line);
}
// prints out:
// Got line: Hello
// Got line: World
Here is a final example in which the Chapel program uses 2 tasks to work with a subprocess. One task is producing data and the other task is consuming it.
use Subprocess;
var input = ["a", "b", "c"];
var sub = spawn(["cat"], stdin=pipeStyle.pipe, stdout=pipeStyle.pipe);
cobegin {
{
// one task writes data to the subprocess
for x in input {
sub.stdin.writeln(x);
}
// this close is important; otherwise the other task blocks forever
sub.stdin.close();
}
{
var line:string;
while sub.stdout.readln(line) {
writeln("Got line ", line);
}
}
}
sub.wait();
// prints out:
// Got line: a
// Got line: b
// Got line: c
Note
Creating a subprocess that uses pipeStyle
pipeStyle.pipe
to
provide input or capture output does not work when using the ugni
communications layer with hugepages enabled and when using more than one
locale. In this circumstance, the program will halt with an error message.
These scenarios do work when using GASNet instead of the ugni layer.
- record subprocess¶
This record represents a subprocess.
Note that the subprocess will not be waited for if this record goes out of scope. Channels opened to communicate with the subprocess will be closed if the record goes out of scope, however.
Generally, it is important to call
subprocess.wait
to wait for the process to complete. If the parent process is using pipes to communicate with the subprocess, the parent process may callsubprocess.close
in order to close the pipes and free any buffers. Such calls are generally not needed since the channels will be closed when the subprocess record is automatically destroyed.- param kind: iokind¶
The kind of a subprocess is used to create the types for any channels that are necessary.
- param locking: bool¶
As with kind, this value is used to create the types for any channels that are necessary.
- var pid: int(64)¶
The Process ID number of the spawned process
- var running: bool¶
false if this library knows that the subprocess is not running
- var exitCode: int¶
The exit status from the subprocess, or possibly a value >= 256 if there was en error when creating the subprocess
- proc stdin throws¶
Access the stdin pipe for the subprocess. The parent process can write to the subprocess through this pipe if the subprocess was created with stdin=pipeStyle.pipe.
- Throws
SystemError – If the subprocess does not have a stdin pipe open.
- proc stdout throws¶
Access the stdout pipe for the subprocess. The parent process can read from the subprocess through this pipe if the subprocess was created with stdout=pipeStyle.pipe.
- Throws
SystemError – If the subprocess does not have a stdout pipe open.
- proc stderr throws¶
Access the stderr pipe for the subprocess. The parent process can read from the subprocess through this pipe if the subprocess was created with stderr=pipeStyle.pipe.
- Throws
SystemError – If the subprocess does not have a stderr pipe open.
- enum pipeStyle { forward, close, pipe, stdout, bufferAll }¶
Styles of piping to use in a subprocess.
forward
indicates that the child process should inherit the stdin/stdout/stderr of this process.close
indicates that the child process should close its stdin/stdout/stderr.pipe
indicates that the spawn operation should set up a pipe between the parent process and the child process so that the parent process can provide input to the child process or capture its output.stdout
indicates that the stderr stream of the child process should be forwarded to its stdout stream.bufferAll
is the same as pipe, but when used for stdin causes all data to be buffered and sent on the communicate() call. This avoids certain deadlock scenarios where stdout or stderr arepipe
. In particular, withoutbufferAll
, the sub-process might block on writing output which will not be consumed until the communicate() call.
- proc spawn(args: [] string, env: [] string = Subprocess.empty_env, executable = "", stdin: ?t = pipeStyle.forward, stdout: ?u = pipeStyle.forward, stderr: ?v = pipeStyle.forward, param kind = iokind.dynamic, param locking = true) throws¶
Create a subprocess.
- Arguments
args – An array of strings storing the command to run and its arguments. The command to run is always the first argument. The command could be found in the current PATH or it could be a full path to a file to execute. If the executable argument is set, the first argument will be the name of the spawned program provided to that program and typically shown in process listings.
env – An array of strings storing the environment to use when spawning the child process instead of forwarding the current environment. By default, this argument is an empty array. In that case, the current environment will be forwarded to the child process.
executable – By default, the executable argument is “”. In that case, the program to launch is the first element of the args array. If the executable argument is provided, it will be used instead of the first element of the args array as the program to launch. In either case, the program could be found by searching the PATH.
stdin – indicates how the standard input of the child process should be handled. It could be
pipeStyle
pipeStyle.forward
,pipeStyle.close
,pipeStyle.pipe
, or a file descriptor number to use. Defaults topipeStyle.forward
.stdout – indicates how the standard output of the child process should be handled. It could be
pipeStyle
pipeStyle.forward
,pipeStyle.close
,pipeStyle.pipe
, or a file descriptor number to use. Defaults topipeStyle.forward
.stderr – indicates how the standard error of the child process should be handled. It could be
pipeStyle
pipeStyle.forward
,pipeStyle.close
,pipeStyle.pipe
,pipeStyle.stdout
, or a file descriptor number to use. Defaults topipeStyle.forward
.kind – What kind of channels should be created when
pipeStyle.pipe
is used. This argument is used to setsubprocess.kind
in the resulting subprocess. Defaults toIO.iokind
iokind.dynamic
.locking – Should channels created use locking? This argument is used to set
subprocess.locking
in the resulting subprocess. Defaults to true.
- Returns
a
subprocess
with kind and locking set according to the arguments.- Throws
IllegalArgumentError – Thrown when
args
is an empty array.
- proc spawnshell(command: string, env: [] string = Subprocess.empty_env, stdin: ?t = pipeStyle.forward, stdout: ?u = pipeStyle.forward, stderr: ?v = pipeStyle.forward, executable = "/bin/sh", shellarg = "-c", param kind = iokind.dynamic, param locking = true) throws¶
Create a subprocess by invoking a shell.
Note
Since the command string is passed to a shell, it is very unsecure to pass user input to this command without proper quoting.
- Arguments
command – A string representing the command to run. This string will be interpreted by the shell.
env – An array of strings storing the environment to use when spawning the child process instead of forwarding the current environment. By default, this argument is an empty array. In that case, the current environment will be forwarded to the child process.
stdin – indicates how the standard input of the child process should be handled. It could be
pipeStyle
pipeStyle.forward
,pipeStyle.close
,pipeStyle.pipe
, or a file descriptor number to use. Defaults topipeStyle.forward
.stdout – indicates how the standard output of the child process should be handled. It could be
pipeStyle
pipeStyle.forward
,pipeStyle.close
,pipeStyle.pipe
, or a file descriptor number to use. Defaults topipeStyle.forward
.stderr – indicates how the standard error of the child process should be handled. It could be
pipeStyle
pipeStyle.forward
,pipeStyle.close
,pipeStyle.pipe
,pipeStyle.stdout
, or a file descriptor number to use. Defaults topipeStyle.forward
.executable – By default, the executable argument is “/bin/sh”. That directs the subprocess to run the /bin/sh shell in order to interpret the command string.
shellarg – An argument to pass to the shell before the command string. By default this is “-c”.
kind – What kind of channels should be created when
pipeStyle
pipeStyle.pipe
is used. This argument is used to setsubprocess.kind
in the resulting subprocess. Defaults toIO.iokind
iokind.dynamic
.locking – Should channels created use locking? This argument is used to set
subprocess.locking
in the resulting subprocess. Defaults to true.
- Returns
a
subprocess
with kind and locking set according to the arguments.- Throws
IllegalArgumentError – Thrown when
command
is an empty string.
- proc subprocess.poll() throws¶
Check to see if a child process has terminated. If the child process has terminated, after this call,
running
will be false.- Throws
InterruptedError – when the poll was interrupted by a signal.
SystemError – if something else has gone wrong when polling the subprocess.
- proc subprocess.wait(buffer = true) throws¶
Wait for a child process to complete. After this function returns,
running
is false andexitCode
stores the exit code returned by the subprocess.If buffer is true, then this call will handle cases in which stdin, stdout, or stderr for the child process is
pipeStyle
pipe
by writing any input to the child process and buffering up the output of the child process as necessary while waiting for it to terminate. It will do so in the same manner assubprocess.communicate
.Note
Do not use buffer false when using
pipe
for stdin, stdout, or stderr. If buffer is false, this function does not try to send any buffered input to the child process and so could result in a hang if the child process is waiting for input to finish. Similarly, this function does not consume the output from the child process and so the child process could hang while waiting to write data to its output while the parent process is waiting for it to complete (and not consuming its output).- Arguments
buffer – if true, buffer input and output pipes (see above).
- Throws
BlockingIoError – when there weren’t sufficient resources to perform one of the required actions
InterruptedError – when the call was interrupted in some way.
BrokenPipeError – when a pipe for the subprocess closed early.
SystemError – when invalid values were passed to the subprocess’s stdin, or something else went wrong when shutting down the subprocess.
- proc subprocess.communicate() throws¶
Wait for a child process to complete. After this function returns,
running
is false andexitCode
stores the exit code returned by the subprocess.This function handles cases in which stdin, stdout, or stderr for the child process is
pipeStyle
pipe
by writing any input to the child process and buffering up the output of the child process as necessary while waiting for it to terminate.- Throws
BlockingIoError – when there weren’t sufficient resources to perform one of the required actions
InterruptedError – when the call was interrupted in some way.
BrokenPipeError – when a pipe for the subprocess closed early.
SystemError – when something went wrong when shutting down the subprocess
- proc subprocess.close() throws¶
Close any open channels and pipes for interacting with a subprocess. This function does not wait for the subprocess to complete. Note that it is generally not necessary to call this function since these channels will be closed when the subprocess record goes out of scope.
- proc subprocess.sendPosixSignal(signal: int) throws¶
Send a signal to a child process.
Declarations for POSIX.1.2008 signals are provided in the OS.POSIX module. These include SIGABRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGCHLD, SIGCONT, SIGFPE, SIGHUP, SIGILL, SIGINT, SIGKILL, SIGPIPE, SIGQUIT, SIGSEGV, SIGSTOP, SIGTERM, SIGTRAP, SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, SIGURG, SIGUSR1, SIGUSR2, SIGXCPU, SIGXFSZ.
See your system’s documentation for their meaning:
man signal
Other values for signal are system-specific and can be declared in this way, for example:
extern const SIGPOLL: c_int;
- Arguments
signal – the signal to send
- proc subprocess.abort() throws¶
Request an abnormal termination of the child process. The associated signal, SIGABRT, may be caught and handled by the child process. See
subprocess.sendPosixSignal
.
- proc subprocess.alarm() throws¶
Send the child process an alarm signal. The associated signal, SIGALRM, may be caught and handled by the child process. See
subprocess.sendPosixSignal
.
- proc subprocess.kill() throws¶
Unconditionally kill the child process. The associated signal, SIGKILL, cannot be caught by the child process. See
subprocess.sendPosixSignal
.
- proc subprocess.terminate() throws¶
Request termination of the child process. The associated signal, SIGTERM, may be caught and handled by the child process. See
subprocess.sendPosixSignal
.