In the code below a process creates one child (fork()) and then the child replaces itself by calling exec(). The stdout of the exec is written in a pipe instead of the shell. Then the parent process reads from the pipe what the exec has written with while (read(pipefd[0], buffer, sizeof(buffer)) != 0)
Can someone tell me how to do the exact same thing as described above but with N number of children processes (who replace themselves with exec as above).
int pipefd[2];
pipe(pipefd);
if (fork() == 0)
{
close(pipefd[0]); // close reading end in the child
dup2(pipefd[1], 1); // send stdout to the pipe
dup2(pipefd[1], 2); // send stderr to the pipe
close(pipefd[1]); // this descriptor is no longer needed
exec(...);
}
else
{
// parent
char buffer[1024];
close(pipefd[1]); // close the write end of the pipe in the parent
while (read(pipefd[0], buffer, sizeof(buffer)) != 0)
{
}
}
I found the answer. I made an array of pipes so that a process does not overwrite the output of another process.
Here is my code. Do you find any mistake?
#include <signal.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#define N 10
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
ssize_t readlen;
int pipefd[N][2];
int i;
for (i = 0; i < N; i++) {
pipe(pipefd[i]);
}
int pid = getpid();
for (i = 0; i < N; i++) {
if (fork() == 0) //The parent process will keep looping
{
close(pipefd[i][0]); // close reading end in the child
dup2(pipefd[i][1], 1); // send stdout to the pipe
dup2(pipefd[i][1], 2); // send stderr to the pipe
close(pipefd[i][1]); // this descriptor is no longer needed
char b[50];
sprintf( b, "%d", i);
execl("/bin/echo", "echo", b,NULL);
}
}
if (pid == getpid()) {
// parent
char buffer[1024];
for (i = 0; i < N; i++) {
close(pipefd[i][1]); // close the write end of the pipe in the parent
while ((readlen=read(pipefd[i][0], buffer, sizeof(buffer))) != 0)
{
buffer[readlen] = '\0';
}
printf("%s\n",buffer);
}
}
}
Maybe this code would do the job:
const int N = 10; //Number of child processes
int pipefd[2];
pipe(pipefd);
int i;
for (i = 0; i < N; i++) {
if (fork() == 0) //The parent process will keep looping
{
close(pipefd[0]); // close reading end in the child
dup2(pipefd[1], 1); // send stdout to the pipe
dup2(pipefd[1], 2); // send stderr to the pipe
close(pipefd[1]); // this descriptor is no longer needed
exec(...);
}
}
// parent
char buffer[1024];
close(pipefd[1]); // close the write end of the pipe in the parent
while (read(pipefd[0], buffer, sizeof(buffer)) != 0)
{
}
WARNING: the output will be mixed. If you want all processes to dump data without being mixed, then you should manage to synchronize processes (by means of public locks, for example).
I think you can create named chanel in any place of the file system (like a local socket) and read all received data to parent process. So child processes must write their getted data to this channel. It will be unix-like architecture.