Reading from STDIN pipe when using proc_open

Question

I am trying to make a website where people can compile and run their code online, thus we need to find an interactive way for users to send instructions.

Actually,

Answer 1

It is more a C or a glibc problem. You'll have to use fflush(stdout).

Why? And what's the difference between running a.out in a terminal and calling it from PHP?

Answer: If you run a.out in a terminal (being stdin a tty) then the glibc will use line buffered IO. But if you run it from another program (PHP in this case) and it's stdin is a pipe (or whatever but not a tty) than the glibc will use internal IO buffering. That's why the first fgets() blocks if uncommented. For more info check this article.

Good news: You can control this buffering using the stdbuf command. Change $run_string to:

$run_string = "cd ".$addr_base.";stdbuf -o0 ./a.out 2>&1";

---

Here comes a working example. Working even if the C code don't cares about fflush() as it is using the stdbuf command:

Starting subprocess

$cmd = 'stdbuf -o0 ./a.out 2>&1';

// what pipes should be used for STDIN, STDOUT and STDERR of the child
$descriptorspec = array (
    0 => array("pipe", "r"),
    1 => array("pipe", "w"),
    2 => array("pipe", "w")
 );

// open the child
$proc = proc_open (
    $cmd, $descriptorspec, $pipes, getcwd()
);

set all streams to non blocking mode

// set all streams to non blockin mode
stream_set_blocking($pipes[1], 0);
stream_set_blocking($pipes[2], 0);
stream_set_blocking(STDIN, 0);

// check if opening has succeed
if($proc === FALSE){
    throw new Exception('Cannot execute child process');
}

get child pid. we need it later

// get PID via get_status call
$status = proc_get_status($proc);
if($status === FALSE) {
    throw new Exception (sprintf(
        'Failed to obtain status information '
    ));
}
$pid = $status['pid'];

poll until child terminates

// now, poll for childs termination
while(true) {
    // detect if the child has terminated - the php way
    $status = proc_get_status($proc);
    // check retval
    if($status === FALSE) {
        throw new Exception ("Failed to obtain status information for $pid");
    }
    if($status['running'] === FALSE) {
        $exitcode = $status['exitcode'];
        $pid = -1;
        echo "child exited with code: $exitcode\n";
        exit($exitcode);
    }

    // read from childs stdout and stderr
    // avoid *forever* blocking through using a time out (50000usec)
    foreach(array(1, 2) as $desc) {
        // check stdout for data
        $read = array($pipes[$desc]);
        $write = NULL;
        $except = NULL;
        $tv = 0;
        $utv = 50000;

        $n = stream_select($read, $write, $except, $tv, $utv);
        if($n > 0) {
            do {
                $data = fread($pipes[$desc], 8092);
                fwrite(STDOUT, $data);
            } while (strlen($data) > 0);
        }
    }


    $read = array(STDIN);
    $n = stream_select($read, $write, $except, $tv, $utv);
    if($n > 0) {
        $input = fread(STDIN, 8092);
        // inpput to program
        fwrite($pipes[0], $input);
    }
}