I have two threads that start up a child process each. The first application is a binary that runs quite long. The second exits quite quickly.
There is a race condition that sometimes causes this to fail. Below I have a minimum viable code example.
It uses Boost Process 0.5, which uses the standard fork / execve / dup2 system. There are some hacks regarding how Boost Process works, but in general it works quite well.
The parent process starts up a lot more processes, and in general it works.
I can't readily boot processes one at a time, especially since I don't know which parts can't interleave.
Any ideas on why this would hang?
Expected output:
/etc/init.d/led restart: Creating child
Creating child1
Reading STDOUT
/etc/init.d/led restart: Waiting for it to exit
Reading std_err_pipe
wait_for_exit(pullapp);
Reading std_out_pipe
< file list>
Done
However, often, but not always, it stops at std_err_pipe.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <boost/iostreams/stream.hpp>
#include <boost/process.hpp>
#include <boost/thread.hpp>
void run_sleep()
{
int exit_code;
std::string str;
std::vector< std::string > args;
boost::shared_ptr<boost::process::child> child;
args.push_back(boost::process::search_path("sleep"));
args.push_back("20");
boost::iostreams::stream< boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_source >
out_stream;
boost::process::pipe out_pipe = boost::process::create_pipe();
{
//MUST BE IN SEPARATE SCOPE SO SINK AND SOURCE ARE DESTROYED
// See http://stackoverflow.com/a/12469478/5151127
boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_sink out_sink
(out_pipe.sink, boost::iostreams::close_handle);
boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_source out_source
(out_pipe.source, boost::iostreams::close_handle);
std::cout << "Creating child1" << std::endl;
child.reset(new boost::process::child(
boost::process::execute(
boost::process::initializers::run_exe(args[0]),
boost::process::initializers::set_args(args),
boost::process::initializers::bind_stdout(out_sink),
boost::process::initializers::bind_stderr(out_sink)
)
));
out_stream.open(out_source);
}
std::cout << "Reading STDOUT" << std::endl;
while( out_stream ) {
std::string line;
std::getline(out_stream, line);
std::cout << line << std::endl;
}
std::cout << "wait_for_exit(pullapp);" << std::endl;
exit_code = wait_for_exit(*child);
child.reset();
return;
}
void run_ls()
{
int exit_code;
std::string str;
std::vector< std::string > args ;
args.push_back(boost::process::search_path("ls"));
args.push_back("/lib");
boost::process::pipe std_out_pipe = boost::process::create_pipe();
boost::process::pipe std_err_pipe = boost::process::create_pipe();
std::cout << "/etc/init.d/led restart: Creating child" << std::endl;
{
boost::process::child child = boost::process::execute(
boost::process::initializers::set_args(args),
boost::process::initializers::bind_stdout(
boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_sink(
std_out_pipe.sink,
boost::iostreams::close_handle
)
),
boost::process::initializers::bind_stderr(
boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_sink(
std_err_pipe.sink,
boost::iostreams::close_handle
)
),
boost::process::initializers::throw_on_error()
);
std::cout << "/etc/init.d/led restart: Waiting for it to exit" << std::endl;
exit_code = wait_for_exit(child);
}
{ //with std_err_stream, istream
boost::iostreams::stream< boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_source >
std_err_stream(
boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_source(
std_err_pipe.source, boost::iostreams::close_handle
)
);
std::cout << "Reading std_err_pipe" << std::endl;
std::istream istream(std_err_stream.rdbuf());
while( istream ) {
getline(istream, str);
std::cout << str << std::endl;
}
}
{ //with std_out_stream, istream
boost::iostreams::stream< boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_source >
std_out_stream(
boost::iostreams::file_descriptor_source(
std_out_pipe.source, boost::iostreams::close_handle
)
);
std::cout << "Reading std_out_pipe" << std::endl;
std::istream istream(std_out_stream.rdbuf());
while( istream ) {
getline(istream, str);
std::cout << str << std::endl;
}
}
std::cout << "Done" << std::endl;
}
int main()
{
boost::thread run_sleep_tr(run_sleep);
boost::thread run_ls_tr(run_ls);
run_sleep_tr.join();
run_ls_tr.join();
return 0;
}
(Save as process-test.cpp and compile with g++ process-test.cpp -o process-test -lboost_iostreams -lboost_filesystem -lboost_thread -lboost_system)
