[erlang-questions] Ports and piping output between them

[Pierre Fenoll]

If your issue has more to do with getting the output error code then why not echo PIPESTATUS?

http://stackoverflow.com/a/9168523

> On 16 Jul 2016, at 19:13, Nathan Fiedler <nathanfiedler@REDACTED> wrote:
> 
> My ultimate goal is to run two external processes, with the output of one feeding into the input of the other, a la shell piping. So something like `zfs send | zfs recv` or `tar | split`, but from within my Erlang application. Below is my simple example that fairly quickly balloons memory out of control and eventually explodes (i.e. the OS kills it).
> 
> #!/usr/bin/env escript
> %%!
> 
> main(_Args) ->
>     SendCmd = "cat /dev/random",
>     %
>     % not using 'binary' with open_port makes memory size grow really fast,
>     % but that's fine, I want that option anyway, just pointing it out
>     %
>     SendPort = erlang:open_port({spawn, SendCmd}, [exit_status, binary]),
>     RecvCmd = "strings",
>     RecvPort = erlang:open_port({spawn, RecvCmd}, [exit_status, binary]),
>     {ok, 0} = pipe_until_exit(SendPort, RecvPort, 0),
>     ensure_port_closed(SendPort),
>     ensure_port_closed(RecvPort),
>     ok.
> 
> pipe_until_exit(SendPort, RecvPort, N) ->
>     %
>     % invoking garbage_collect/0 helps a little bit, but memory still grows
>     %
>     io:format("iteration ~w~n", [N]),
>     receive
>         {SendPort, {exit_status, Status}} ->
>             {ok, Status};
>         {RecvPort, {exit_status, Status}} ->
>             io:format("error: receive port exited ~w~n", [Status]);
>         {SendPort, {data, Data}} ->
>             true = erlang:port_command(RecvPort, Data),
>             pipe_until_exit(SendPort, RecvPort, N + 1);
>         {RecvPort, {data, _Data}} ->
>             pipe_until_exit(SendPort, RecvPort, N + 1);
>         Msg ->
>             io:format("some other message: ~w", [Msg])
>     end.
> 
> ensure_port_closed(Port) ->
>     case erlang:port_info(Port) of
>         undefined -> ok;
>         _         -> erlang:port_close(Port)
>     end.
> 
> My assumption is that I am doing something wrong, but I can't see it. I'll explore other solutions, such as simply generating a shell script and invoking it. In the mean time, if you can see something obvious, please let me know.
> 
> Yes, I am aware of os:cmd/1, but that does not return the exit code, which I really want to have so I know that something at least appeared to work (zfs send|zfs recv and tar|split do not generate any success indication other than exit code).
> 
> Thanks
> 
> n
> 
> _______________________________________________
> erlang-questions mailing list
> erlang-questions@REDACTED
> http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/attachments/20160717/487dbacb/attachment.htm>