Subprocess

open class Subprocess(pointer: <Error class: unknown class><<Error class: unknown class>>) : Initable

#GSubprocess allows the creation of and interaction with child processes.

Processes can be communicated with using standard GIO-style APIs (ie: #GInputStream, #GOutputStream). There are GIO-style APIs to wait for process termination (ie: cancellable and with an asynchronous variant).

There is an API to force a process to terminate, as well as a race-free API for sending UNIX signals to a subprocess.

One major advantage that GIO brings over the core GLib library is comprehensive API for asynchronous I/O, such g_output_stream_splice_async(). This makes GSubprocess significantly more powerful and flexible than equivalent APIs in some other languages such as the subprocess.py included with Python. For example, using #GSubprocess one could create two child processes, reading standard output from the first, processing it, and writing to the input stream of the second, all without blocking the main loop.

A powerful g_subprocess_communicate() API is provided similar to the communicate() method of subprocess.py. This enables very easy interaction with a subprocess that has been opened with pipes.

#GSubprocess defaults to tight control over the file descriptors open in the child process, avoiding dangling-fd issues that are caused by a simple fork()/exec(). The only open file descriptors in the spawned process are ones that were explicitly specified by the #GSubprocess API (unless %G_SUBPROCESS_FLAGS_INHERIT_FDS was specified).

#GSubprocess will quickly reap all child processes as they exit, avoiding "zombie processes" remaining around for long periods of time. g_subprocess_wait() can be used to wait for this to happen, but it will happen even without the call being explicitly made.

As a matter of principle, #GSubprocess has no API that accepts shell-style space-separated strings. It will, however, match the typical shell behaviour of searching the PATH for executables that do not contain a directory separator in their name. By default, the PATH of the current process is used. You can specify %G_SUBPROCESS_FLAGS_SEARCH_PATH_FROM_ENVP to use the PATH of the launcher environment instead.

#GSubprocess attempts to have a very simple API for most uses (ie: spawning a subprocess with arguments and support for most typical kinds of input and output redirection). See g_subprocess_new(). The #GSubprocessLauncher API is provided for more complicated cases (advanced types of redirection, environment variable manipulation, change of working directory, child setup functions, etc).

A typical use of #GSubprocess will involve calling g_subprocess_new(), followed by g_subprocess_wait_async() or g_subprocess_wait(). After the process exits, the status can be checked using functions such as g_subprocess_get_if_exited() (which are similar to the familiar WIFEXITED-style POSIX macros).

Skipped during bindings generation

  • parameter stdout_buf: stdout_buf: Out parameter is not supported

  • parameter stdout_buf: stdout_buf: Out parameter is not supported

  • parameter stdout_buf: stdout_buf: Out parameter is not supported

  • parameter stdout_buf: stdout_buf: Out parameter is not supported

  • method argv: Property has no getter nor setter

  • method flags: Property has no getter nor setter

Since

2.40

Constructors

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constructor(argv: List<String>, flags: SubprocessFlags)

Create a new process with the given flags and argument list.

constructor(pointer: <Error class: unknown class><<Error class: unknown class>>)

Types

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object Companion

Properties

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open override val gioInitablePointer: <Error class: unknown class><<Error class: unknown class>>
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val gioSubprocessPointer: <Error class: unknown class><<Error class: unknown class>>

Functions

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open fun communicateAsync(stdinBuf: <Error class: unknown class>? = null, cancellable: Cancellable? = null, callback: AsyncReadyCallback)

Asynchronous version of g_subprocess_communicate(). Complete invocation with g_subprocess_communicate_finish().

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open fun communicateUtf8Async(stdinBuf: String? = null, cancellable: Cancellable? = null, callback: AsyncReadyCallback)

Asynchronous version of g_subprocess_communicate_utf8(). Complete invocation with g_subprocess_communicate_utf8_finish().

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open fun forceExit()

Use an operating-system specific method to attempt an immediate, forceful termination of the process. There is no mechanism to determine whether or not the request itself was successful; however, you can use g_subprocess_wait() to monitor the status of the process after calling this function.

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open fun getExitStatus(): Int

Check the exit status of the subprocess, given that it exited normally. This is the value passed to the exit() system call or the return value from main.

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open fun getIdentifier(): String?

On UNIX, returns the process ID as a decimal string. On Windows, returns the result of GetProcessId() also as a string. If the subprocess has terminated, this will return null.

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open fun getIfExited(): Boolean

Check if the given subprocess exited normally (ie: by way of exit() or return from main()).

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Check if the given subprocess terminated in response to a signal.

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open fun getStatus(): Int

Gets the raw status code of the process, as from waitpid().

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Gets the #GInputStream from which to read the stderr output of

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Gets the #GOutputStream that you can write to in order to give data to the stdin of @subprocess.

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Gets the #GInputStream from which to read the stdout output of

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Checks if the process was "successful". A process is considered successful if it exited cleanly with an exit status of 0, either by way of the exit() system call or return from main().

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open fun getTermSig(): Int

Get the signal number that caused the subprocess to terminate, given that it terminated due to a signal.

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open fun init(cancellable: Cancellable? = null): <Error class: unknown class><Boolean>

Initializes the object implementing the interface.

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open fun sendSignal(signalNum: Int)

Sends the UNIX signal @signal_num to the subprocess, if it is still running.

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open fun wait(cancellable: Cancellable? = null): <Error class: unknown class><Boolean>

Synchronously wait for the subprocess to terminate.

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open fun waitAsync(cancellable: Cancellable? = null, callback: AsyncReadyCallback)

Wait for the subprocess to terminate.

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open fun waitCheck(cancellable: Cancellable? = null): <Error class: unknown class><Boolean>

Combines g_subprocess_wait() with g_spawn_check_wait_status().

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open fun waitCheckAsync(cancellable: Cancellable? = null, callback: AsyncReadyCallback)

Combines g_subprocess_wait_async() with g_spawn_check_wait_status().

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open fun waitCheckFinish(result: AsyncResult): <Error class: unknown class><Boolean>

Collects the result of a previous call to g_subprocess_wait_check_async().

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open fun waitFinish(result: AsyncResult): <Error class: unknown class><Boolean>

Collects the result of a previous call to g_subprocess_wait_async().