NSTask's real-time output

Question

I have a PHP script which has mutliple sleep() commands. I would like to execute it in my application with NSTask. My script looks like this:

Answer 1

You can use NSFileHandle's waitForDataInBackgroundAndNotify method to receive a notification when the script writes data to its output. This will only work, however, if the interpreter sends the strings immediately. If it buffers output, you will get a single notification after the task exits.

- (void)awakeFromNib {
    NSTask *task = [[NSTask alloc] init];
    [task setLaunchPath: @"/usr/bin/php"];

    NSArray *arguments;
    arguments = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: @"-r", @"echo \"first\n\"; sleep(1); echo \"second\n\"; sleep(1); echo \"third\n\";", nil];
    [task setArguments: arguments];

    NSPipe *p = [NSPipe pipe];
    [task setStandardOutput:p];
    NSFileHandle *fh = [p fileHandleForReading];
    [fh waitForDataInBackgroundAndNotify];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(receivedData:) name:NSFileHandleDataAvailableNotification object:fh];

    [task launch];

}

- (void)receivedData:(NSNotification *)notif {
    NSFileHandle *fh = [notif object];
    NSData *data = [fh availableData];
    if (data.length > 0) { // if data is found, re-register for more data (and print)
        [fh waitForDataInBackgroundAndNotify];
        NSString *str = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
        NSLog(@"%@" ,str);
    }
}