CODEWITHSUNDEEP
coperating-systempipeforkchild-process
Umut Barış İşler
Umut Barış İşler

Reputation: 43

Multiple pipes and processes

I am trying to communicate with children processes and make them sort a part of a list. My problem is children processes read everything but do nothing after it.

int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
    int i;
    int num_children;
    pid_t pid;

    num_children= 3;

    int fd[num_children][2];      //PIPES

    for (i=0; i<num_children; i++)
    {
        if (pipe(fd[i]) == -1)
        {
            printf("couldnt create the pipe\n");
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
    }


    for (i=0; i<num_children; i++)
    {
        pid = fork();
        if (pid == -1)
        {
            printf("couldnt create child process %i\n",i);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }

        if (pid == 0)
        {                         //this is child process
            close(fd[i][1]);         //closing fd[1] the write end of the pipe
            int received;
            node *list = NULL;
            while ( read(fd[i][0], &received, sizeof(int)) > 0)
            {
                list = insert(list, received);
                printf("Process %i got the number: %i\n",i,received);  //this part is working perfect
            }

            printf("Im process %i here is my list: \n",i);   //i couldnt get any output from here
            printList(list);

            close(fd[i][0]);
            exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
         }       
    }


    for (i=0; i<num_children; i++)  //closing the read end of pipe for parent
    {
        close(fd[i][0]);
    }

    int number;
    int mod;
    FILE *fileIn = fopen ("<file directory>","r");
    while(fscanf(fileIn, "%i", &number)>=0)
    {
        mod = number % num_children;
        write(fd[mod][1], &number, sizeof(int));
    }  

    for (int i=0; i<num_children; i++)
    {
        if(close(fd[i][1])==0)
        {
            printf("cant close the pipe");  
            //tried to catch errors, but pipes are closing with no problem i think
        }
    }

    return 0;

I tried to see if children process wait in the while(read) loop, but when i close the write end of pipes from the parent process they should leave the loop.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 2544

Answers (2)

dragosht
dragosht

Reputation: 3275

You're probably thinking that some specific pipe[2] is shared by the parent and it's respective child process. That's true ... However it is also shared by all the other children processes you create along the way - and because it's opened, those other children processes also inherit it as opened.

Doing this at the beginning of your child pid check worked for me:

if (pid == 0) {
    int j;
    for (j = 0; j < num_children; j++) {
        if (j != i) {
            close(fd[j][0]);
            close(fd[j][1]);
        }
    }
    ...
}

Upvotes: 3

Dan
Dan

Reputation: 51

I suspect that the reading from the pipe via:

while ( read(fd[i][0], &received, sizeof(int)) > 0)

is being blocked/haulted until data is available on the pipe. If so, this would explain the lack of response from your code after this point.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions