Re: Reading program output from stdin

From: Ben Pfaff (blp_at_cs.stanford.edu)
Date: 03/31/04 

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 10:26:31 -0800

"mpearo" <mpearo@suffolk.lib.ny.us> writes:

> I have a program that calls ping. I would like to read the output back into
> the calling program for further action. Any ideas and/or help would be
> greatly appreciated.

If you'd read the FAQ, you would already have an answer.

19.30: How can I invoke another program or command and trap its output?

A: Unix and some other systems provide a popen() function, which
        sets up a stdio stream on a pipe connected to the process
        running a command, so that the output can be read (or the input
        supplied). (Also, remember to call pclose().)

        If you can't use popen(), you may be able to use system(), with
        the output going to a file which you then open and read.

        If you're using Unix and popen() isn't sufficient, you can learn
        about pipe(), dup(), fork(), and exec().

        (One thing that probably would *not* work, by the way, would be
        to use freopen().)

        References: PCS Sec. 11 p. 169. 

-- 
"IMO, Perl is an excellent language to break your teeth on"
--Micah Cowan