programming unix shell piping problem

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
 
enum
{
    STDIN = 0,
    STDOUT = 1,
    STDERR = 2,
    FD_READ = 0,
    FD_WRITE = 1
};
 
int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
{
    int fd[2];
    pid_t pid;
    char *lessArg[] = 
    {
        "/bin/less",
        NULL
    };
 
    char *lsArg[] =
    {
        "/bin/ls",
        NULL
    }
 
    if(0 > pipe(fd))
    {
        printf(%s \n", strerror(errno));
    }
 
    if( pid = fork() ) // parent
    {
        waitpid(pid, NULL, 0);
    }
    else
    {
        dup2(fd[FD_WRITE], STDIN);
        execve("/bin/ls", lsArg, envp);
    }
 
    if( pid = fork() ) // parent
    {
        waitpid(pid, NULL, 0);
    }
    else
    {
        dup2(fd[FD_READ], STDIN);
        execve("/bin/less", lessArg, envp);
    }
   
    return 0;
}

---

anyway, the code above, i'm having some trouble with. I've tried several things but i can't do what i want it to do.

What the program does is, forks ls and pipes the result into less. less is to print it out to stdout. Now that all goes fine. It prints the output, but the problem is that i can't get back my stdin. I cant quit less or move in less. I'm shut out from the keyboard to control less.

I've tried closing the file descriptors (fd) in the parent and still nothing.

If i just use file redirection with dup2 it's all fine, just when i use the pipe file descriptors is when i run into problems

thx

Well, the first problem I see is that you fail to close the file descriptors. Next, you redirect ls to STDIN when it should be STDOUT to pipe properly. Something more like this:

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>

enum
{
    STDIN = STDIN_FILENO,
    STDOUT = STDOUT_FILENO,
    STDERR = STDERR_FILENO,
    FD_READ = 0,
    FD_WRITE = 1
};

int main(void)
{
    pid_t pid;
    int fd[2];

    char *lessArg[] = 
    {
        "/bin/less",
        NULL
    };
 
    char *lsArg[] =
    {
        "/bin/ls",
        NULL
    }

    if (pipe(fd) == -1) {
        perror("pipe -- main");
        return 1;
    }

    if ((pid = fork()) == 0) { /* ls is the child */
        if (dup2(fd[FD_WRITE], STDOUT) == -1)
            perror("child dup2 -- main");
        else if (close(fd[FD_READ]) == -1 || close(fd[FD_WRITE) == -1)
            perror("child close -- main");
        else
            execve("/bin/ls", lsArg, envp);
    }

    if (dup2(fd[FD_READ], STDIN) == -1) /* less is the parent */
        perror("parent dup2 -- main");
    else if (close(fd[FD_READ]) == -1 || close(fd[FD_WRITE]) == -1)
        perror("parent close -- main" );
    else
        execve("/bin/less", lessArg, envp);

    return 0;
}

---

Thx for that prelude it works, but after looking at it there's one problem, the program doesn't fork before executing less.

And now, i think i know the initial problem which is now what i need to solve.

I think i am shut out of the input because less is still running in the background and the parent was what was running. ANd since the parent is waiting of the child to finish i wasn't able to do anything. The input was connected to the parent not the child (less).

So now i need to have control of the child (less) then after less has finished, gain control to the parent.