I'll post my code first, then explain the problem I'm having:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#define MAX_ARGS 20
#define BUFSIZE 1024
int get_args(char* cmdline, char* args[])
{
int i = 0;
/* if no args */
if((args[0] = strtok(cmdline, "\n\t ")) == NULL)
return 0;
while((args[++i] = strtok(NULL, "\n\t ")) != NULL) {
if(i >= MAX_ARGS) {
printf("Too many arguments!\n");
exit(1);
}
}
/* the last one is always NULL */
return i;
}
void execute(char* cmdline)
{
int pid, async, oneapp;
char* args[MAX_ARGS];
char* args2[] = {"-l", NULL};
int nargs = get_args(cmdline, args);
if(nargs <= 0) return;
if(!strcmp(args[0], "quit") || !strcmp(args[0], "exit")) {
exit(0);
}
printf("before the if\n");
printf("%s\n",args[nargs - 2]);
int i = 0;
// EDIT: THIS IS WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE COMMENTED OUT
/*
while (args[i] != ">" && i < nargs - 1) {
printf("%s\n",args[i]);
i++;
}
*/
// Presence of ">" token in args
// causes errors in execvp() because ">" is not
// a built-in Unix command, so remove it from args
args[i - 1] = NULL;
printf("Escaped the while\n");
// File descriptor array for the pipe
int fd[2];
// PID for the forked process
pid_t fpid1;
// Open the pipe
pipe(fd);
// Here we fork
fpid1 = fork();
if (fpid1 < 0)
{
// The case where the fork fails
perror("Fork failed!\n");
exit(-1);
}
else if (fpid1 == 0)
{
//dup2(fd[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(fd[1]);
//close(fd[0]);
// File pointer for the file that'll be written to
FILE * file;
// freopen() redirects stdin to args[nargs - 1],
// which contains the name of the file we're writing to
file = freopen(args[nargs - 1], "w+", stdin);
// If we include this line, the functionality works
//execvp(args[0],args);
// We're done writing to the file, so close it
fclose(file);
// We're done using the pipe, so close it (unnecessary?)
//close(fd[1]);
}
else
{
// Wait for the child process to terminate
wait(0);
printf("This is the parent\n");
// Connect write end of pipe (fd[1]) to standard output
dup2(fd[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
// We don't need the read end, so close it
close(fd[0]);
// args[0] contains the command "ls", which is
// what we want to execute
execvp(args[0], args);
// This is just a test line I was using before to check
// whether anything was being written to stdout at all
printf("Exec was here\n");
}
// This is here to make sure program execution
// doesn't continue into the original code, which
// currently causes errors due to incomplete functionality
exit(0);
/* check if async call */
printf("Async call part\n");
if(!strcmp(args[nargs-1], "&")) { async = 1; args[--nargs] = 0; }
else async = 0;
pid = fork();
if(pid == 0) { /* child process */
execvp(args[0], args);
/* return only when exec fails */
perror("exec failed");
exit(-1);
} else if(pid > 0) { /* parent process */
if(!async) waitpid(pid, NULL, 0);
else printf("this is an async call\n");
} else { /* error occurred */
perror("fork failed");
exit(1);
}
}
int main (int argc, char* argv [])
{
char cmdline[BUFSIZE];
for(;;) {
printf("COP4338$ ");
if(fgets(cmdline, BUFSIZE, stdin) == NULL) {
perror("fgets failed");
exit(1);
}
execute(cmdline) ;
}
return 0;
}
So, what's the problem? Simple: the code above creates a file with the expected name, i.e. the name provided in the command line, which gets placed at args[nargs - 1]. For instance, running the program and then typing
ls > test.txt
Creates a file called test.txt... but it doesn't actually write anything to it. I did manage to get the program to print garbage characters to the file more than a few times, but this only happened during bouts of desperate hail mary coding where I was basically just trying to get the program to write SOMETHING to the file.
I do think I've managed to narrow down the cause of the problems to this area of the code:
else if (fpid1 == 0)
{
printf("This is the child.\n");
//dup2(fd[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
close(fd[1]);
//close(fd[0]);
// File pointer for the file that'll be written to
FILE * file;
// freopen() redirects stdin to args[nargs - 1],
// which contains the name of the file we're writing to
file = freopen(args[nargs - 1], "w+", stdout);
// If we include this line, the functionality works
//execvp(args[0],args);
// We're done writing to the file, so close it
fclose(file);
// We're done using the pipe, so close it (unnecessary?)
//close(fd[1]);
}
else
{
// Wait for the child process to terminate
wait(0);
printf("This is the parent\n");
// Connect write end of pipe (fd[1]) to standard output
dup2(fd[1], STDOUT_FILENO);
// We don't need the read end, so close it
close(fd[0]);
// args[0] contains the command "ls", which is
// what we want to execute
execvp(args[0], args);
// This is just a test line I was using before to check
// whether anything was being written to stdout at all
printf("Exec was here\n");
}
More specifically, I believe the problem is with the way I'm using (or trying to use) dup2() and the piping functionality. I basically found this out by process of elimination. I spent a few hours commenting things out, moving code around, adding and removing test code, and I've found the following things:
1.) Removing the calls to dup2() and using execvp(args[0], args) prints the result of the ls command to the console. The parent and child processes begin and end properly. So, the calls to execvp() are working properly.
2.) The line
file = freopen(args[nargs - 1], "w+", stdout)
Successfully creates a file with the correct name, so the call to freopen() isn't failing. While this doesn't immediately prove that this function is working properly as it's written now, consider fact #3:
3.) In the child process block, if we make freopen redirect to the output file from stdin (rather than stdout) and uncomment the call to execvp(args[0], args), like so:
// freopen() redirects stdin to args[nargs - 1],
// which contains the name of the file we're writing to
file = freopen(args[nargs - 1], "w+", stdin);
// If we include this line, the functionality works
execvp(args[0],args);
and run the program, then it works and result of the ls command is successfully written to the output file. Knowing this, it seems pretty safe to say that freopen() isn't the problem either.
In other words, the only thing I haven't been able to successfully do is pipe the output of the execvp() call that's done in the parent process to stdout, and then from stdout to the file using freopen().
Any help is appreciated. I've been at this since 10 AM yesterday and I'm completely out of ideas. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. Why isn't this working?