2001-04-14 01:05:57

by Rob Landley

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: How do I make a circular pipe?

How do I do the following:

# --> pppd notty | pppoe -I eth1 | --
|_________________________________|

I.E. connect the stdout of a process (or chain
thereof) to its own stdin?

So I wrote a program to do it, along the lines of:

sixty-nine /bin/sh -c "pppd notty | pppoe -I eth1"

With an executable approximately along the lines of
(warning, pseudo-code, the other machine isn't hooked
up to the internet at the moment for obvious reasons):

int main(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[])
{
int fd[2];
pipe(fd);
dup2(fd[0],0);
dup2(fd[0],1);
execve(argv[1],argv+1,envp);
fprintf(stderr,"Bad.\n");
exit(1);
}

And it didn't work. I made a little test program that
writes to stdout and reads from stdin and reports to
stderr, and it gets nothing. Apparently, the pipe
fd's evaporate when the process does an execve.

What do I do? (If anybody else knows an easier way to
get pppoe working, that would be helpful too.

Rob

(P.S. WHY does pppd want to talk to a tty by default
instead of stdin and stdout? Were the people who
wrote it at all familiar with the unix philosophy?
Just curious...)

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2001-04-14 05:52:27

by Michael Meissner

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: How do I make a circular pipe?

On Fri, Apr 13, 2001 at 06:05:04PM -0700, Rob Landley wrote:
> How do I do the following:
>
> # --> pppd notty | pppoe -I eth1 | --
> |_________________________________|
>
> I.E. connect the stdout of a process (or chain
> thereof) to its own stdin?
>
> So I wrote a program to do it, along the lines of:
>
> sixty-nine /bin/sh -c "pppd notty | pppoe -I eth1"
>
> With an executable approximately along the lines of
> (warning, pseudo-code, the other machine isn't hooked
> up to the internet at the moment for obvious reasons):
>
> int main(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[])
> {
> int fd[2];
> pipe(fd);
> dup2(fd[0],0);
> dup2(fd[0],1);
> execve(argv[1],argv+1,envp);
> fprintf(stderr,"Bad.\n");
> exit(1);
> }
>
> And it didn't work. I made a little test program that
> writes to stdout and reads from stdin and reports to
> stderr, and it gets nothing. Apparently, the pipe
> fd's evaporate when the process does an execve.

Check out:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

/* ... */

fcntl (fd, F_SETFD, (long) FD_CLOEXEC);

to set/reset the close on exec bit.

> What do I do? (If anybody else knows an easier way to
> get pppoe working, that would be helpful too.

You might want to check out something like Stevens advanced UNIX programming,
though it is probably somewhat dated :-)

> Rob
>
> (P.S. WHY does pppd want to talk to a tty by default
> instead of stdin and stdout? Were the people who
> wrote it at all familiar with the unix philosophy?
> Just curious...)

At a guess I would say that the reason is you don't have as much control with
pipes as you do with devices. Under the standard termios, you can tell the
system to not return from the read until either n characters have been read, or
a given character such as a newline has been read. You can also switch to
alternative line disciplines that are more targeted to a given application such
as PPP, etc.

You probably want to check out pseudo tty's (pty's), which allow you to create
your own terminal. Here is the glibc documentation, but you really should pick
up a more advanced treatment of pty's, particularly for the interaction with
signals, job control, etc.:

File: libc.info, Node: Allocation, Next: Pseudo-Terminal Pairs, Up:
Pseudo-Terminals

Allocating Pseudo-Terminals
---------------------------

This subsection describes functions for allocating a pseudo-terminal,
and for making this pseudo-terminal available for actual use. These
functions are declared in the header file `stdlib.h'.

- Function: int getpt (void)
The `getpt' function returns a new file descriptor for the next
available master pseudo-terminal. The normal return value from
`getpt' is a non-negative integer file descriptor. In the case of
an error, a value of -1 is returned instead. The following
`errno' conditions are defined for this function:

`ENOENT'
There are no free master pseudo-terminals available.

This function is a GNU extension.

- Function: int grantpt (int FILEDES)
The `grantpt' function changes the ownership and access permission
of the slave pseudo-terminal device corresponding to the master
pseudo-terminal device associated with the file descriptor
FILEDES. The owner is set from the real user ID of the calling
process (*note Process Persona::), and the group is set to a
special group (typically "tty") or from the real group ID of the
calling process. The access permission is set such that the file
is both readable and writable by the owner and only writable by
the group.

On some systems this function is implemented by invoking a special
`setuid' root program (*note How Change Persona::). As a
consequence, installing a signal handler for the `SIGCHLD' signal
(*note Job Control Signals::) may interfere with a call to
`grantpt'.

The normal return value from `grantpt' is 0; a value of -1 is
returned in case of failure. The following `errno' error
conditions are defined for this function:

`EBADF'
The FILEDES argument is not a valid file descriptor.

`ENINVAL'
The FILEDES argument is not associated with a master
pseudo-terminal device.

`EACCESS'
The slave pseudo-terminal device corresponding to the master
associated with FILEDES could not be accessed.


- Function: int unlockpt (int FILEDES)
The `unlockpt' function unlocks the slave pseudo-terminal device
corresponding to the master pseudo-terminal device associated with
the file descriptor FILEDES. On many systems, the slave can only
be opened after unlocking, so portable applications should always
call `unlockpt' before trying to open the slave.

The normal return value from `unlockpt' is 0; a value of -1 is
returned in case of failure. The following `errno' error
conditions are defined for this function:

`EBADF'
The FILEDES argument is not a valid file descriptor.

`EINVAL'
The FILEDES argument is not associated with a master
pseudo-terminal device.

- Function: char * ptsname (int FILEDES)
If the file descriptor FILEDES is associated with a master
pseudo-terminal device, the `ptsname' function returns a pointer
to a statically-allocated, null-terminated string containing the
file name of the associated slave pseudo-terminal file. This
string might be overwritten by subsequent calls to `ptsname'.

- Function: int ptsname_r (int FILEDES, char *BUF, size_t LEN)
The `ptsname_r' function is similar to the `ptsname' function
except that it places its result into the user-specified buffer
starting at BUF with length LEN.

This function is a GNU extension.

*Portability Note:* On System V derived systems, the file returned
by the `ptsname' and `ptsname_r' functions may be STREAMS-based, and
therefore require additional processing after opening before it
actually behaves as a pseudo terminal.
therefore require additional processing after opening before it
actually behaves as a pseudo terminal.

Typical usage of these functions is illustrated by the following
example:
int
open_pty_pair (int *amaster, int *aslave)
{
int master, slave;
char *name;

master = getpt ();
if (master < 0)
return 0;

if (grantpt (master) < 0 || unlockpt (master) < 0)
goto close_master;
name = ptsname (master);
if (name == NULL)
goto close_master;

slave = open (name, O_RDWR);
if (slave == -1)
goto close_master;

if (isastream (slave))
{
if (ioctl (slave, I_PUSH, "ptem") < 0
|| ioctl (slave, I_PUSH, "ldterm") < 0)
goto close_slave;
}

*amaster = master;
*aslave = slave;
return 1;

close_slave:
close (slave);

close_master:
close (master);
return 0;
}

--
Michael Meissner, Red Hat, Inc. (GCC group)
PMB 198, 174 Littleton Road #3, Westford, Massachusetts 01886, USA
Work: [email protected] phone: +1 978-486-9304
Non-work: [email protected] fax: +1 978-692-4482

2001-04-14 17:45:17

by Rob Landley

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: How do I make a circular pipe?

> > Apparently, the pipe
> > fd's evaporate when the process does an execve.
>
> Check out:
>
> #include <unistd.h>
> #include <fcntl.h>
>
> /* ... */
>
> fcntl (fd, F_SETFD, (long) FD_CLOEXEC);
>
> to set/reset the close on exec bit.

Cool. That's EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks.

Thanks also to the people who pointed out pppd's "pty"
option (yes I read the docs on that, but they're a bit
cryptic). And yes, my pseudo-code example used fd[0]
twice. Thanks. You can stop emailing me now. :)

> You might want to check out something like Stevens
> advanced UNIX programming, though it is probably
> somewhat dated :-)

I've got about fifteen books with names like that, but
strangely in real world situations I keep trying to
use the man pages instead. Sad, I know...

> At a guess I would say that the reason is you don't
> have as much control with pipes as you do with
> devices. Under the standard termios, you can tell
> the system to not return from the read until either
n
> characters have been read, or a given character such
> as a newline has been read. You can also switch to
> alternative line disciplines that are more targeted
> to a given application such as PPP, etc.

Hmmm. And the reason these cool toys aren't available
as some kind of wrapper around a normal read-from-fd
is...? (Performance?)

> You probably want to check out pseudo tty's (pty's),
> which allow you to create your own terminal.

This occurred to me in the car on the way home after
five hours messing with this. (Of course. :)

> Here is the glibc documentation,

Thanks.

Info. Never thought to check info. Here I am
checking linuxdoc's howtos, man pages, and google...
Sigh... I don't suppose there's an info2html tool
anywhere?

Well what do you know, there is. (I LIKE Google.)

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~jonh/info2html/

Rob

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2001-04-14 23:08:05

by bert hubert

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: How do I make a circular pipe?

On Sat, Apr 14, 2001 at 10:44:46AM -0700, Rob Landley wrote:

> Info. Never thought to check info. Here I am
> checking linuxdoc's howtos, man pages, and google...
> Sigh... I don't suppose there's an info2html tool
> anywhere?

'pinfo' can also be very useful - looks a lot like lynx, but processess info
files directly.

> Well what do you know, there is. (I LIKE Google.)

They also like linux, I hear :-)

Regards,

bert

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2001-04-17 08:00:09

by Johan Adolfsson

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: How do I make a circular pipe?

Can't you do it like this?
# mkfifo fifo
# pppd notty < fifo | pppoe -I eth1 >fifo
/Johan

----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Landley <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2001 3:05 AM
Subject: How do I make a circular pipe?


> How do I do the following:
>
> # --> pppd notty | pppoe -I eth1 | --
> |_________________________________|
>
> I.E. connect the stdout of a process (or chain
> thereof) to its own stdin?
>
> So I wrote a program to do it, along the lines of:
>
> sixty-nine /bin/sh -c "pppd notty | pppoe -I eth1"
>
> With an executable approximately along the lines of
> (warning, pseudo-code, the other machine isn't hooked
> up to the internet at the moment for obvious reasons):
>
> int main(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[])
> {
> int fd[2];
> pipe(fd);
> dup2(fd[0],0);
> dup2(fd[0],1);
> execve(argv[1],argv+1,envp);
> fprintf(stderr,"Bad.\n");
> exit(1);
> }
>
> And it didn't work. I made a little test program that
> writes to stdout and reads from stdin and reports to
> stderr, and it gets nothing. Apparently, the pipe
> fd's evaporate when the process does an execve.
>
> What do I do? (If anybody else knows an easier way to
> get pppoe working, that would be helpful too.
>
> Rob
>
> (P.S. WHY does pppd want to talk to a tty by default
> instead of stdin and stdout? Were the people who
> wrote it at all familiar with the unix philosophy?
> Just curious...)
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
> http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
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