Question

I have Implemented a simple program which simulates $ls -l | wc -c command execution using simple pipes and execvp calls.

Now After redirecting stdin and stdout ,when executes the program , shell prompt disappears and it waits for the enter key to be pressed.

Any way of solving this issue . Plz criticize my code also..

Thanks

 /* Create pipe */
  ret_val=pipe(pipe_fd);
  /*Error check */
   if(ERROR==ret_val)
   {
    perror("Pipe creation error \n");
    _exit(FAILURE);
   }

/*Fork First Child */
pid_one = fork() ;

if( 0 == pid_one ) /*child process block */
{


    /* First sub process */
    /*printf("First sub process is %d \n",getpid());*/

    /* redirect stdout to pipe's write end  for sub process one*/
    dup2(pipe_fd[1],1);


    /*close pipe read end */
    close(pipe_fd[0]);

    execvp(cmd_one_tokens[0],cmd_one_tokens);   

    /* if execvp returns then if must have failed */
    printf("Unknown Command \n ");
    //exit(10);
}
else /*main process block */
{
    /*printf(" Main  process is %d \n",getpid());*/

    /*Wait for first sub process to finish */
    //wait(&status);

    /*printf("Exit status of first child is %d \n ", WEXITSTATUS(status) );*/

    /*Fork second subprocess */
    pid_two = fork();

    if( 0 == pid_two ) /*second child process block */
    {
        /* redirect stdin  to pipe's read end  for sub process two */
        dup2(pipe_fd[0],0);

    //  close(0);       /* close normal stdin */
        //  dup(pipe_fd[0]);   /* make stdib same as pfds[0] */


        /*close pipe write end */
        close(pipe_fd[1]);

        /* Second  sub process */
        /*printf("Second sub process is %d \n",getpid()); */

        execvp(cmd_two_tokens[0] , cmd_two_tokens); 
        /* if execvp returns then if must have failed */
        printf("Unknown Command \n ");

    }
    else        /*main process block */
    {
        /* printf(" Main  process is %d \n",getpid()); */
        status=-1; /*reset status */

        /*Waiting for the second sub process to finish in No hang fashion */
            waitpid ( -1 , &status ,WNOHANG);
        /*printf("Exit status of second  child is %d \n ", WEXITSTATUS(status) ); */

    }
}

Answer 1

You have to close the pipe file descriptors in the main process, after the second is forked. Until you have closed them, the child process (wc) will wait for input on the pipe which the main process still has open. You must be very careful to close all the unneeded ends of the pipe.