Redirecting stdin and stdout in .Net

Question

I'm trying to redirect stdin and stdout of a console application, so that I can interact with them via F#. However, depending on the console application the obvious code seems to fail. The following F# code works for dir but fails (hangs) for python and fsi:

open System
open System.Diagnostics

let f = new Process()
f.StartInfo.FileName <- "python"
f.StartInfo.UseShellExecute <- false
f.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError <- true
f.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput <- true
f.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput <- true
f.EnableRaisingEvents <- true
f.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow <- true
f.Start()
let line = f.StandardOutput.ReadLine()

This hangs for python but works for dir.

Does this have do with python and fsi using readline or am I making an obvious mistake? Is there a work around that would allow me to interact with fsi or python REPL from F#?

Answer 1

I'll bet neither python nor fsi are actually generating a line of text to be read. The call to ReadLine will block until a full line ending with a carriage return or linefeed is available.

Try reading a character at a time (with Read instead of ReadLine) and see what happens.

Answer 2

This is the code you are looking for (which I conveniently have written in Chapter 9, Scripting ;) As mentioned earlier, ReadLine blocks until there is a full line which leads to all sorts of hangs. Your best bet is to hook into the OutputDataRecieved event.

open System.Text
open System.Diagnostics

let shellEx program args =

    let startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo()
    startInfo.FileName  <- program
    startInfo.Arguments <- args
    startInfo.UseShellExecute <- false

    startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput <- true
    startInfo.RedirectStandardInput  <- true

    let proc = new Process()
    proc.EnableRaisingEvents <- true

    let driverOutput = new StringBuilder()
    proc.OutputDataReceived.AddHandler(
        DataReceivedEventHandler(
            (fun sender args -> driverOutput.Append(args.Data) |> ignore)
        )
    )

    proc.StartInfo <- startInfo
    proc.Start() |> ignore
    proc.BeginOutputReadLine()

    // Now we can write to the program
    proc.StandardInput.WriteLine("let x = 1;;")
    proc.StandardInput.WriteLine("x + x + x;;")
    proc.StandardInput.WriteLine("#q;;")

    proc.WaitForExit()
    (proc.ExitCode, driverOutput.ToString())

Output (which could stand to be prettied up):

val it : int * string =
  (0,
   "Microsoft F# Interactive, (c) Microsoft Corporation, All Rights ReservedF# Version 1.9.7.8, compiling for .NET Framework Version v2.0.50727For help type #help;;> val x : int = 1> val it : int = 3> ")

Answer 3

It's probably what Michael Petrotta says. If that's the case, even reading a character won't help. What you need to do is to use the asynchronous versions (BeginOutputReadLine) so that your app won't block.