# Proc::Background: Generic interface to background process management. # # Copyright (C) 1998-2001 Blair Zajac. package Proc::Background; require 5.004_04; use strict; use vars qw(@ISA $VERSION @EXPORT_OK); use Exporter; use Carp qw(cluck); use Cwd; @ISA = qw(Exporter); @EXPORT_OK = qw(timeout_system); $VERSION = substr q$Revision: 1.03 $, 10; # Determine if the operating system is Windows. my $is_windows = $^O eq 'MSWin32'; # Set up a regular expression that tests if the path is absolute and # if it has a directory separator in it. Also create a list of file # extensions of append to the programs name to look for the real # executable. my $is_absolute_re; my $has_dir_element_re; my @extensions = (''); if ($is_windows) { $is_absolute_re = '^(?:(?:[a-zA-Z]:[\\\\/])|(?:[\\\\/]{2}\w+[\\\\/]))'; $has_dir_element_re = "[\\\\/]"; push(@extensions, '.exe'); } else { $is_absolute_re = "^/"; $has_dir_element_re = "/"; } # Make this class a subclass of Proc::Win32 or Proc::Unix. Any # unresolved method calls will go to either of these classes. OS: { if ($is_windows) { require Proc::Background::Win32; unshift(@ISA, 'Proc::Background::Win32'); last OS; } require Proc::Background::Unix; unshift(@ISA, 'Proc::Background::Unix'); last OS; } # Take either a relative or absolute path to a command and make it an # absolute path. sub _resolve_path { my $command = shift; return unless $command; # Make the path to the progam absolute if it isn't already. If the # path is not absolute and if the path contains a directory element # separator, then only prepend the current working to it. If the # path is not absolute, then look through the PATH environment to # find the executable. In all cases, look for the programs with any # extensions added to the original path name. my $path; if ($command =~ /$is_absolute_re/o) { foreach my $ext (@extensions) { my $p = "$command$ext"; if (-x $p) { $path = $p; last; } } unless ($path) { warn "$0: no executable program located at $command\n"; } } else { my $cwd = cwd; if ($command =~ /$has_dir_element_re/o) { my $p1 = "$cwd/$command"; foreach my $ext (@extensions) { my $p2 = "$p1$ext"; if (-x $p2) { $path = $p2; last; } } } else { foreach my $dir (split($is_windows ? ';' : ':', $ENV{PATH})) { next unless $dir; $dir = "$cwd/$dir" unless $dir =~ /$is_absolute_re/o; my $p1 = "$dir/$command"; foreach my $ext (@extensions) { my $p2 = "$p1$ext"; if (-x $p2) { $path = $p2; last; } } last if $path; } } unless ($path) { warn "$0: cannot find absolute location of $command\n"; } } $path; } # We want the created object to live in Proc::Background instead of # the OS specific class so that generic method calls can be used. sub new { my $class = shift; unless (@_ > 0) { cluck "$class::new called with insufficient number of arguments"; return; } return unless $_[0]; my $self = $class->SUPER::_new(@_) or return; # Save the start time of the class. $self->{_start_time} = time; bless $self, $class; } # Reap the child. If the first argument is 0 the wait should return # immediately, 1 if it should wait forever. If this number is # non-zero, then wait. If the wait was sucessful, then delete # $self->{_os_obj} and set $self->{_exit_value} to the OS specific # class return of _reap. Return 1 if we sucessfully waited, 0 # otherwise. sub _reap { my $self = shift; my $timeout = shift || 0; return 0 unless exists($self->{_os_obj}); # Try to wait on the process. Use the OS dependent wait call using # the Proc::Background::*::waitpid call, which returns one of three # values. # (0, exit_value) : sucessfully waited on. # (1, undef) : process already reaped and exist value lost. # (2, undef) : process still running. my ($result, $exit_value) = $self->_waitpid($timeout); if ($result == 0 or $result == 1) { $self->{_exit_value} = defined($exit_value) ? $exit_value : 0; delete $self->{_os_obj}; # Save the end time of the class. $self->{_end_time} = time; return 1; } return 0; } sub alive { my $self = shift; # If $self->{_os_obj} is not set, then the process is definitely # not running. return 0 unless exists($self->{_os_obj}); # If $self->{_exit_value} is set, then the process has already finished. return 0 if exists($self->{_exit_value}); # Try to reap the child. If it doesn't reap, then it's alive. !$self->_reap(0); } sub wait { my $self = shift; # If neither _os_obj or _exit_value are set, then something is wrong. if (!exists($self->{_exit_value}) and !exists($self->{_os_obj})) { return; } # If $self->{_exit_value} exists, then we already waited. return $self->{_exit_value} if exists($self->{_exit_value}); # Otherwise, wait forever for the process to finish. $self->_reap(1); return $self->{_exit_value}; } sub die { my $self = shift; # See if the process has already died. return 1 unless $self->alive; # Kill the process using the OS specific method. $self->_die; # See if the process is still alive. !$self->alive; } sub start_time { $_[0]->{_start_time}; } sub end_time { $_[0]->{_end_time}; } sub pid { $_[0]->{_pid}; } sub timeout_system { unless (@_ > 1) { cluck "$0: timeout_system passed too few arguments.\n"; return; } my $timeout = shift; unless ($timeout =~ /^\d+(?:\.\d*)?$/ or $timeout =~ /^\.\d+$/) { cluck "$0: timeout_system passed a non-positive number first argument.\n"; return; } my $proc = Proc::Background->new(@_) or return; my $end_time = $proc->start_time + $timeout; while ($proc->alive and time < $end_time) { sleep(1); } my $alive = $proc->alive; if ($alive) { $proc->die; } if (wantarray) { return ($proc->wait, $alive); } else { return $proc->wait; } } 1; __END__ =pod =head1 NAME Proc::Background - Generic interface to Unix and Win32 background process management =head1 SYNOPSIS use Proc::Background; timeout_system($seconds, $command, $arg1); timeout_system($seconds, "$command $arg1"); my $proc1 = Proc::Background->new($command, $arg1, $arg2); my $proc2 = Proc::Background->new("$command $arg1 1>&2"); $proc1->alive; $proc1->die; $proc1->wait; my $time1 = $proc1->start_time; my $time2 = $proc1->end_time; =head1 DESCRIPTION This is a generic interface for placing processes in background on both Unix and Win32 platforms. This module lets you start, kill, wait on, retrieve exit values, and see if background processes still exist. =head1 METHODS =over 4 =item B I, [I, [I, ...]] =item B 'I [I [I ...]]' This creates a new background process. As exec() or system() may be passed an array with a single single string element containing a command to be passed to the shell or an array with more than one element to be run without calling the shell, B has the same behavior. In certain cases B will attempt to find I on the system and fail if it cannot be found. For Win32 operating systems: The Win32::Process module is always used to spawn background processes on the Win32 platform. This module always takes a single string argument containing the executable's name and any option arguments. In addition, it requires that the absolute path to the executable is also passed to it. If only a single argument is passed to new, then it is split on whitespace into an array and the first element of the split array is used at the executable's name. If multiple arguments are passed to new, then the first element is used as the executable's name. If the executable's name is an absolute path, then new checks to see if the executable exists in the given location or fails otherwise. If the executable's name is not absolute, then the executable is searched for using the PATH environmental variable. The input executable name is always replaced with the absolute path determined by this process. In addition, when searching for the executable, the executable is searched for using the unchanged executable name and if that is not found, then it is checked by appending `.exe' to the name in case the name was passed without the `.exe' suffix. Finally, the argument array is placed back into a single string and passed to Win32::Process::Create. For non-Win32 operating systems, such as Unix: If more than one argument is passed to new, then new assumes that the command will not be passed through the shell and the first argument is the executable's relative or absolute path. If the first argument is an absolute path, then it is checked to see if it exists and can be run, otherwise new fails. If the path is not absolute, then the PATH environmental variable is checked to see if the executable can be found. If the executable cannot be found, then new fails. These steps are taking to prevent exec() from failing after an fork() without the caller of new knowing that something failed. If anything fails, then new returns an empty list in a list context, an undefined value in a scalar context, or nothing in a void context. =item B Returns the process ID of the created process. This value is saved even if the process has already finished. =item B Return 1 if the process is still active, 0 otherwise. =item B Reliably try to kill the process. Returns 1 if the process no longer exists once B has completed, 0 otherwise. This will also return 1 if the process has already died. On Unix, the following signals are sent to the process in one second intervals until the process dies: HUP, QUIT, INT, KILL. =item B Wait for the process to exit. Return the exit status of the command as returned by wait() on the system. To get the actual exit value, divide by 256 or right bit shift by 8, regardless of the operating system being used. If the process never existed, then return an empty list in a list context, an undefined value in a scalar context, or nothing in a void context. This function may be called multiple times even after the process has exited and it will return the same exit status. =item B Return the value that the Perl function time() returned when the process was started. =item B Return the value that the Perl function time() returned when the exit status was obtained from the process. =back =head1 FUNCTIONS =over 4 =item B I, I, [I, [I...]] =item B 'I I [I [I...]]' Run a command for I seconds and if the process did not exit, then kill it. While the timeout is implemented using sleep(), this function makes sure that the full I is reached before killing the process. B does not wait for the complete I number of seconds before checking if the process has exited. Rather, it sleeps repeatidly for 1 second and checks to see if the process still exists. In a scalar context, B returns the exit status from the process. In an array context, B returns a two element array, where the first element is the exist status from the process and the second is set to 1 if the process was killed by B or 0 if the process exited by itself. The exit status is the value returned from the wait() call. If the process was killed, then the return value will include the killing of it. To get the actual exit value, divide by 256. If something failed in the creation of the process, the subroutine returns an empty list in a list context, an undefined value in a scalar context, or nothing in a void context. =back =head1 IMPLEMENTATION I comes with two modules, I and I. Currently, on the Unix platform I it uses the I class and on the Win32 platform I, which makes use of I, is used. The I assigns to @ISA either I or I, which does the OS dependent work. The OS independent work is done in I. Proc::Background uses two variables to keep track of the process. $self->{_os_obj} contains the operating system object to reference the process. On a Unix systems this is the process id (pid). On Win32, it is an object returned from the I class. When $self->{_os_obj} exists, then the process is running. When the process dies, this is recorded by deleting $self->{_os_obj} and saving the exit value $self->{_exit_value}. Anytime I is called, a waitpid() is called on the process and the return status, if any, is gathered and saved for a call to I. This module does not install a signal handler for SIGCHLD. If for some reason, the user has installed a signal handler for SIGCHLD, then, then when this module calls waitpid(), the failure will be noticed and taken as the exited child, but it won't be able to gather the exit status. In this case, the exit status will be set to 0. =head1 SEE ALSO See also the L and L manual pages. =head1 AUTHOR Blair Zajac =head1 COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 1998-2001 Blair Zajac. All rights reserved. This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. =cut