NAME

Subprocess - launch and manage subprocesses

EXAMPLE

package require Subprocess

set p [Subprocess::Popen #auto cmd]
set rval [$p wait]

::itcl::delete object $p

DESCRIPTION

The Popen class takes the pain out of executing subprocesses with Tcl's open command. You can launch a process, monitor its status and redirect its standard input and output streams to alternative Tcl channels. By using pipes, you may even communicate with the process directly, even though you might prefer to use the CliDriver(3caius) module in that case.

API

itcl::class Subprocess::Popen

constructor ?-stdout chan? ?-stderr chan? ?-stdin chan? ?-timeout ms?

Launch a subprocess and optionally redirect its standard input and output streams to alternative Tcl channels. If a timeout is specified, the process will be forcefully terminated when it exceeds the timeout.

Raises a Subprocess::Error if invocation fails for some reason.

method kill

Kill the subprocess. On Unix this is equivalent to sending a SIGKILL.

method pid

Return the process ID of the subprocess.

method process_exists

Check if the process is still alive.

method timeout_occurred

Check if a timeout occurred.

method terminate

Terminate the subprocess. On Unix this is equivalent to sending a SIGTERM.

method wait

Wait on the subprocess to end and return its exit code.

ADDITIONAL HINTS

Deleting a Popen object that is associated with an active process, using itcl::delete object, will implicitely terminate the process. If the process was terminated pre-maturely, wait will return -1.

Channel descriptors passed as parameters to the Popen command are effectively moved to another thread and are hence-forth not accessible anymore in the calling thread. This does not apply to the standard channels stdout, stderr and stdin. They keep functioning as expected.

SEE ALSO

error(3caius), signal(7)