Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 20:41:19 -0800 (PST)
Message-Id: <199802100441.UAA02901@adit.ap.net>
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To: abharmal AT hotmail DOT com (Ali Bharmal), djgpp AT delorie DOT com
From: Nate Eldredge <eldredge AT ap DOT net>
Subject: Re: Capturing stdout using system
Precedence: bulk

At 09:29  2/9/1998 GMT, Ali Bharmal wrote:
>I'm writing a SSI wrapper for my web server (its called before a piece of HTML 
>is delivered, parses it, and runs commands etc.. i.e. dynamic-HTML). One 
>requirement is that it will run external programs and capture their output and 
>insert it in place of the command in the HTML e.g.
[snipped]
>The question is; how do I capture any screen output from these programs? Is 
>there an alternative to system() which pipes the output into a buffer, or am I 
>going to have to redirect output to a file which I then read. I'd rather the 
>former, as I'd like the program to be minimum-impact on the system.
I'm not totally sure I understand what you're asking, but see if
`popen'/`pclose' do what you want. Note that on DJGPP it will actually be
done by redirecting the command and then letting you read its output. There
isn't any other solution, AFAIK, on a single-tasking system.

Nate Eldredge
eldredge AT ap DOT net



 of programming
>without that program becoming Free Software (or Copyleft).
Technically true, but it's not quite that cut-and-dried. The standard GPL,
which covers most GNU source, forces you to make your code freely
distributable with source. The LGPL, or Library GPL, loosens this somewhat:
You don't have to make your software freely distributable, but you do have
to include source or linkable object code with it. (I think the reasoning is
that this way users can update the library to fix bugs.) This is what covers
libg++. To confuse the issue further, there is also a "special exception"
license, which allows you to do anything you want with the code except pass
it off as your own. This applies to things like the Bison parser skeleton.

The FAQ and the licenses themselves are the definitive references, of course.

Nate Eldredge
eldredge AT ap DOT net