Sponsored Content
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Redirecting stdin from fd 3-9? Post 302350396 by Azhrei on Thursday 3rd of September 2009 04:13:14 PM
Old 09-03-2009
Actually, it can be done, but it's a bit ugly.

The problem is that when you run the job in the background, it's the background shell that creates fd4 and the parent (your command line shell) will know nothing about it. Because there's no one with fd4 opened for writing, the background job will immediately read EOF and terminate.

Something like this will give you a better shot:
Code:
exec >&4
./myprogram <&4 &
echo "message to program"

The first line redirects stdout to fd4 and leaves it turned on so that future data sent to stdout will go to fd4. (Writing an echo statement afterwards that goes to the real stdout is left as an exercise for the student. Smilie)

Now when you execute myprogram in the background, there will be a fd4 available so you won't get the error message, and fd4 will become stdin for that job.

Now when you print something to stdout it will go to the background job.

Using a FIFO (named pipe) will be similar. The important thing about named pipes is to open the reader first -- you'll get an error if you attempt to open the writer first (EPIPE on many system, "Attempt to write on a pipe with no readers").

If you have to stick with bash, then use one of the above techniques. But you're much better off (if possible) using a HERE document or the Korn shell's coprocess ability.
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Programming

stdin

hi, how does a program know whether some data are available from stdin? I would like to make a program which could read its data from stdin and _if_there_is_nothing_at_stdin_ from a file which name is given as an argument. If there is nothing in stdin and no filename is given as argument,... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: marquis
2 Replies

2. HP-UX

stdin device on HP

How can I access the standard-in device in HP-UX? I am trying to automate sftp on an HP-UX system. On solaris I can just do: sftp -b /dev/fd/0 remotehost <<EOF cd pub ascii get filename.txt bye EOF (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: dangral
2 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

redirection stdin

hello all, I need to create a password change utility for a database. I need to gather at the command line the username, password and database sid. I have the program currently doing this. What I would like to do is not have the new password appear on the screen when I do my read command.... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: whited05
2 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

redirect STDIN

can you redirect STDIN with command arguments? I have tried this approach: # ./script -option <argument1> <argument2> 0<$2 # $2: ambiguous redirect Is this possible? (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: prkfriryce
4 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

Redirecting to stdin

Hi, I'm having trouble with my script. I have to select different choices without any interaction from a menu that looks like : a - xxxxxxxxxxxxxx b - xxxxxxxxxxxxxx c - xxxxxxxxxxxxxx d - xxxxxxxxxxxxxx I tried things like : echo "a" >&0 read < echo "a" but none worked. Any... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: flame_eagle
4 Replies

6. Programming

How to write to stdin of another program (program A -> [stdin]program B)

Hi, Program A: uses pipe() I am able to read the stdout of PROGAM B (stdout got through system() command) into PROGRAM A using: * child -> dup2(fd, STDOUT_FILENO); -> execl("/path/PROGRAM B", "PROGRAM B", NULL); * parent -> char line; -> read(fd, line, 100); Question: ---------... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: vvaidyan
1 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

How to write to stdin of another program (program A -> [stdin]program B)

Hi, Program A: uses pipe() I am able to read the stdout of PROGAM B (stdout got through system() command) into PROGRAM A using: * child -> dup2(fd, STDOUT_FILENO); -> execl("/path/PROGRAM B", "PROGRAM B", NULL); * parent -> char line; -> read(fd, line, 100); Question: ---------... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: vvaidyan
3 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

fork and stdin

When a process fork(), the child share the same file descriptors as his father. Thus, they share the same stdin. Quick and dirty exemple below (sorry for the ugly gets() call) : #include <stdio.h> #include <unistd.h> int main() { char buf; if (fork()) { /*parent */ ... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: milouz
1 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Redirecting stdin/stdout to/from command from/to string

Hi, I am working on a project where I have to generate and execute nasm code on-the-fly. I generate the code in a file program.asm and then execute it.This output is to stdout which i redirect to an output file which i read back to compare results: system("nasm -f elf program.asm >... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: doc_cypher
5 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

[stdin / stdout] Strategies for redirecting outputs

Well.. let's say i need to write a pretty simple script. In my script i have 2 variables which can have value of 0 or 1. $VERBOSE $LOG I need to implement these cases: ($VERBOSE = 0 && $LOG = 0) => ONLY ERROR output (STDERR to console && STDOUT to /dev/null) ($VERBOSE = 1... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: Marmz
5 Replies
RBASH(1)						      General Commands Manual							  RBASH(1)

NAME
rbash - restricted bash, see bash(1) RESTRICTED SHELL
If bash is started with the name rbash, or the -r option is supplied at invocation, the shell becomes restricted. A restricted shell is used to set up an environment more controlled than the standard shell. It behaves identically to bash with the exception that the follow- ing are disallowed or not performed: o changing directories with cd o setting or unsetting the values of SHELL, PATH, ENV, or BASH_ENV o specifying command names containing / o specifying a file name containing a / as an argument to the . builtin command o specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument to the -p option to the hash builtin command o importing function definitions from the shell environment at startup o parsing the value of SHELLOPTS from the shell environment at startup o redirecting output using the >, >|, <>, >&, &>, and >> redirection operators o using the exec builtin command to replace the shell with another command o adding or deleting builtin commands with the -f and -d options to the enable builtin command o using the enable builtin command to enable disabled shell builtins o specifying the -p option to the command builtin command o turning off restricted mode with set +r or set +o restricted. These restrictions are enforced after any startup files are read. When a command that is found to be a shell script is executed, rbash turns off any restrictions in the shell spawned to execute the script. SEE ALSO
bash(1) GNU Bash-4.0 2004 Apr 20 RBASH(1)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:45 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy