Prac 2 ‐ Executing and pipelining processes
Prac 2 ‐ Executing and pipelining processes
Assignment 2
Due 11:59pm, Monday May 13
Detailed handin instructions at end of specification.
This assignment is worth 15% of your marks for this course.
For this prac you will write two C programs to execute a list of commands. Your first program will simply
read in the commands and then execute them in a sequence. The second program will execute the
commands in a pipeline, where the output of each command becomes the input to the next command in
the sequence:
cmd1 | cmd2 | cmd3 ………… | cmdn
Round 1: sequence.c
This program should read and execute a list of commands from stdin. Each command and its arguments
(if any) will appear on a separate line. For example, if the file "cmdfile" contains the lines:
whoami
cal 4 2019
echo The time is:
date
then running
should output your username, a calendar of the month of April, the string "The time is:", and the current
date/time, to standard output.
Suggested approach: first, make sure you can parse a command and its arguments correctly, and store
them as an array of C strings. Test this thoroughly before moving on, making use of trace statements to
make sure you've accounted for all the cases you can come up with! Debugging processes and pipes can
be tricky so you want to have confidence you are giving later parts of your program the correct input. For
the purposes of this prac, you can assume a maximum of 10 arguments per command, 256 characters
per line, and 100 lines per file.
Second, look at the exec() family of functions and use one to execute each command in turn. Hint: there
is a sample program from the first lecture on processes that does something very similar! Here is a
pseudo-code version of the setup:
1 ./sequence < cmdfile
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Round 2: pipeline.c
This program takes the same input as sequence.c, but executes the commands as a pipeline, where the
output of each command is piped to the input of the next command in line. The input of the first
command, and the output of the final command, should not be altered. For example, if the file "cmdpipe"
contains the lines
ls -s1
sort -n
tail -n 5
then running
should output the 5 largest files in the current directory, in order of size.
Suggested approach: set it up so that the parent process forks a child to execute each command in turn,
and keeps track of the pipes that the current child should read from and write to. The child redirects its
input and output to these pipes, and then executes the current command. Here is a pseudo-code version
of the setup:
while there are remaining commands:
read line from file
parse line into command and arguments
for cmd in commands:
fork and handle errors
if (child)
execute command
else // parent
wait for child to terminate
1 ./pipeline < cmdpipe
// For each command except the final one:
// new_pipe = the output of the current command
// For each command except the first one:
// prev_pipe = the output of the previous command, input of current command
for cmd in cmds:
if this is not the final command:
pipe (new_pipe) // Create a new pipe
fork and handle errors
if (child)
if this is not the first command:
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Remember that once you call fork, both parent and child have their own copy of all variables, including
pipes! Have a look at the pattern for setting up processes to read and write from pipes, from lectures.
Make sure you close all pipes when they are no longer needed as not doing so can cause behaviour that
is hard to debug.
Note your code should work with any command. For example:
cal
cat pipeline.c
grep .
wc -l
should print out the number of non-blank lines in your source file (the first line has no effect - why?).
Submisison Instructions
The handin key for this exercise is: prac2. The following SVN commands will enable you to make a
repository for this assignment. Please note the following:
• Perform these steps in the order written once only!
• Replace aaaaaa, where it appears in the commands, with YOUR student id.
• Some commands are long — they must be typed on one line.
Use the Unix “cd” command to change to the place where you want your exercise directory to be stored,
then type these commands:
svn mkdir --parents -m "spc prac2 start" https://version-control.adelaide.edu.au/svn/a1aaaaaa/2019/s1
/spc/prac2
(creates this directory in your svn tree)
svn co https://version-control.adelaide.edu.au/svn/a1aaaaaa/2019/s1/spc/prac2 .
(checks out a working copy in your directory) You can now begin work.
Redirect input to prev_pipe
if this is not the final command:
Redirect output to new_pipe
execute command
else // parent
if this is not the first command:
close prev_pipe
if this is not the final command:
prev_pipe = new_pipe
close any remaining pipes, clean up
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You can add a file to the repository by typing the commands:
svn add NAME-OF-FILE
svn commit -m "REASON-FOR-THE-COMMIT"
where “reason-for-the-commit” should be some brief text that explains why you changed the code since
the last commit. Note that you only need to add a file once — after that, SVN will “know” it is in the
repository. You are now ready to commence working on the exercise.
The files you handin must include:
1. Your C source files as specified above.
2. A Makefile that will compile your C sources as specified above.
Make sure you commit your files frequently, in case you have an accident. The University’s SVN
repository is very reliable, and is backed up regularly — your computer probably is not... Regular
submission is also a good defence against plagiarism by others, since the submissions are dated. We will
test the behaviour of your scripts using an automated tester. The tester is thorough, and will find places
where your scripts do not work correctly. If it finds an error, it will offer a (vaguish) hint. You should also
come up with your own tests, as we may add extra test cases when determining your final mark!
Note that we reserve the right to deduct marks if your code does anything egregious or games the system
to obtain marks.
End of Instructions.
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