Linux: Executing child process with piped stdin/stdout

Question

Using Linux and C++, I would like a function that does the following:

string f(string s)
{
    string r = system("foo < s");
    return r;
}

Obviously the above doesn't work, but you get the idea. I have a string s that I would like to pass as the standard input of a child process execution of application "foo", and then I would like to record its standard output to string r and then return it.

What combination of Linux syscalls or POSIX functions should I use? I'm using Linux 3.0 and do not need the solution to work with older systems.

Answer 1

The code provided by eerpini does not work as written. Note, for example, that the pipe ends that are closed in the parent are used afterwards. Look at

close(wpipefd[1]); 

and the subsequent write to that closed descriptor. This is just transposition, but it shows this code has never been used. Below is a version that I have tested. Unfortunately, I changed the code style, so this was not accepted as an edit of eerpini's code.

The only structural change is that I only redirect the I/O in the child (note the dup2 calls are only in the child path.) This is very important, because otherwise the parent's I/O gets messed up. Thanks to eerpini for the initial answer, which I used in developing this one.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>

#define PIPE_READ 0
#define PIPE_WRITE 1

int createChild(const char* szCommand, char* const aArguments[], char* const aEnvironment[], const char* szMessage) {
  int aStdinPipe[2];
  int aStdoutPipe[2];
  int nChild;
  char nChar;
  int nResult;

  if (pipe(aStdinPipe) < 0) {
    perror("allocating pipe for child input redirect");
    return -1;
  }
  if (pipe(aStdoutPipe) < 0) {
    close(aStdinPipe[PIPE_READ]);
    close(aStdinPipe[PIPE_WRITE]);
    perror("allocating pipe for child output redirect");
    return -1;
  }

  nChild = fork();
  if (0 == nChild) {
    // child continues here

    // redirect stdin
    if (dup2(aStdinPipe[PIPE_READ], STDIN_FILENO) == -1) {
      exit(errno);
    }

    // redirect stdout
    if (dup2(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_WRITE], STDOUT_FILENO) == -1) {
      exit(errno);
    }

    // redirect stderr
    if (dup2(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_WRITE], STDERR_FILENO) == -1) {
      exit(errno);
    }

    // all these are for use by parent only
    close(aStdinPipe[PIPE_READ]);
    close(aStdinPipe[PIPE_WRITE]);
    close(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_READ]);
    close(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_WRITE]); 

    // run child process image
    // replace this with any exec* function find easier to use ("man exec")
    nResult = execve(szCommand, aArguments, aEnvironment);

    // if we get here at all, an error occurred, but we are in the child
    // process, so just exit
    exit(nResult);
  } else if (nChild > 0) {
    // parent continues here

    // close unused file descriptors, these are for child only
    close(aStdinPipe[PIPE_READ]);
    close(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_WRITE]); 

    // Include error check here
    if (NULL != szMessage) {
      write(aStdinPipe[PIPE_WRITE], szMessage, strlen(szMessage));
    }

    // Just a char by char read here, you can change it accordingly
    while (read(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_READ], &nChar, 1) == 1) {
      write(STDOUT_FILENO, &nChar, 1);
    }

    // done with these in this example program, you would normally keep these
    // open of course as long as you want to talk to the child
    close(aStdinPipe[PIPE_WRITE]);
    close(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_READ]);
  } else {
    // failed to create child
    close(aStdinPipe[PIPE_READ]);
    close(aStdinPipe[PIPE_WRITE]);
    close(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_READ]);
    close(aStdoutPipe[PIPE_WRITE]);
  }
  return nChild;
}