How to use a determinate NSProgressIndicator to check on the progress of NSTask? - Cocoa

Question

What I have is NSTask running a long premade shell script and I want the NSProgressIndicator to check on how much is done. I've tried many things but just can't seem to get it to work. I know how to use it if the progress bar is indeterminate but i want it to load as the task goes on.

Here is how I am running the script:

- (IBAction)pressButton:(id)sender {
    NSTask *task = [[NSTask alloc] init];
    [task setLaunchPath:@"/bin/sh"];
    [task setArguments:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"script" ofType:@"sh"], nil]];
    [task launch];
}

I need to put a progress bar in that checks the progress of that task while it happens and update accordingly.

Answer 1

Here is an example of an async NSTask running a unix script. Within the Unix script there are echo commands that send back the current status to standard error like this:

echo "working" >&2

This is processed by notification center and sent to the display.

To update a determinate progress bar just send status updates like "25.0" "26.0" and convert to float and send to the progress bar.

note: I got this working after alot of experimenting and by using many tips from this site and other references. so I hope it is helpful to you.

Here are the declarations:

NSTask *unixTask;
NSPipe *unixStandardOutputPipe;
NSPipe *unixStandardErrorPipe;
NSPipe *unixStandardInputPipe;
NSFileHandle *fhOutput;
NSFileHandle *fhError;
NSData *standardOutputData;
NSData *standardErrorData;

Here are the main program modules:

    - (IBAction)buttonLaunchProgram:(id)sender {

    [_unixTaskStdOutput setString:@"" ];
    [_unixProgressUpdate setStringValue:@""];
    [_unixProgressBar startAnimation:sender];

    [self runCommand];
}
- (void)runCommand {

    //setup system pipes and filehandles to process output data
    unixStandardOutputPipe = [[NSPipe alloc] init];
    unixStandardErrorPipe =  [[NSPipe alloc] init];

    fhOutput = [unixStandardOutputPipe fileHandleForReading];
    fhError =  [unixStandardErrorPipe fileHandleForReading];

    //setup notification alerts
    NSNotificationCenter *nc = [NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter];

    [nc addObserver:self selector:@selector(notifiedForStdOutput:) name:NSFileHandleReadCompletionNotification object:fhOutput];
    [nc addObserver:self selector:@selector(notifiedForStdError:)  name:NSFileHandleReadCompletionNotification object:fhError];
    [nc addObserver:self selector:@selector(notifiedForComplete:)  name:NSTaskDidTerminateNotification object:unixTask];

    NSMutableArray *commandLine = [NSMutableArray new];
    [commandLine addObject:@"-c"];
    [commandLine addObject:@"/usr/bin/kpu -ca"]; //put your script here

    unixTask = [[NSTask alloc] init];
    [unixTask setLaunchPath:@"/bin/bash"];
    [unixTask setArguments:commandLine];
    [unixTask setStandardOutput:unixStandardOutputPipe];
    [unixTask setStandardError:unixStandardErrorPipe];
    [unixTask setStandardInput:[NSPipe pipe]];
    [unixTask launch];

    //note we are calling the file handle not the pipe
    [fhOutput readInBackgroundAndNotify];
    [fhError readInBackgroundAndNotify];
}
-(void) notifiedForStdOutput: (NSNotification *)notified
{

    NSData * data = [[notified userInfo] valueForKey:NSFileHandleNotificationDataItem];
    NSLog(@"standard data ready %ld bytes",data.length);

    if ([data length]){

        NSString * outputString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];  
        NSTextStorage *ts = [_unixTaskStdOutput textStorage];
        [ts replaceCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange([ts length], 0)
                          withString:outputString];
    }

    if (unixTask != nil) {

        [fhOutput readInBackgroundAndNotify];
    }

}
-(void) notifiedForStdError: (NSNotification *)notified
{

    NSData * data = [[notified userInfo] valueForKey:NSFileHandleNotificationDataItem];
    NSLog(@"standard error ready %ld bytes",data.length);

    if ([data length]) {

        NSString * outputString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];  
        [_unixProgressUpdate setStringValue:outputString];
    }

    if (unixTask != nil) {

        [fhError readInBackgroundAndNotify];
    }

}
-(void) notifiedForComplete:(NSNotification *)anotification {

    NSLog(@"task completed or was stopped with exit code %d",[unixTask terminationStatus]);
    unixTask = nil;

    [_unixProgressBar stopAnimation:self];
    [_unixProgressBar viewDidHide];

    if ([unixTask terminationStatus] == 0) {
        [_unixProgressUpdate setStringValue:@"Success"]; 
    }
    else {
        [_unixProgressUpdate setStringValue:@"Terminated with non-zero exit code"];
    }
}
@end