unix-exec-output-catcher 0.1.2

Library to run executables in a child process and catch STDOUT and STDERR output on UNIX-systems. std::process::Command is probably the better option. Use this source code as educational source how it could be done.
Documentation

unix-exec-output-catcher

A library written in Rust that executes an executable in a child process and catches its output (stdout and stderr).

⚠️ Difference to std::process::Command 🚨

std::process::Command does the same in the standard library but with one exception: My library gives you access to stdout, stderr, and "stdcombined". This way you get all output lines in the order they appeared. That's the unique feature of this crate. std/process/struct.Command.html#method.output

TL;DR;

The call to fork_exec_and_catch() is blocking. If the program produces infinite output to stdout or stderr, this function will never return. If the program produces 1GB of output this function will consume 1GB of memory. See examples directory for example code.

Example

use unix_exec_output_catcher::fork_exec_and_catch;

fn main() {
    // executes "ls" with "-la" as argument.
    // this is equivalent to running "$ ls -la" in your shell.
    // The line by line output is stored inside the result.
    let res = fork_exec_and_catch("ls", vec!["ls", "-la"]);
    println!("{:#?}", res.unwrap());
}

Used technologies / important keywords

  • Unix (including but not limited to Linux-distributions, MacOS)
  • pipe()
  • exec()
  • fork()
  • dup2()