Write/Read a stream of data (double) using named pipes in C++ - c++

Question

I am trying to develop a little application in C++, within a Linux environment, which does the following:
1) gets a data stream (a series of arrays of doubles) from the output of a 'black-box' and writes it to a pipe. The black-box can be thought as an ADC;
2) reads the data stream from the pipe and feeds it to another application which requires these data as stdin;
Unfortunately, I was not able to find tutorials or examples. The best way I found to realize this is summarized in the following test-bench example:
#include <iostream>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#define FIFO "/tmp/data"
using namespace std;
int main() {
int fd;
int res = mkfifo(FIFO,0777);
float *writer = new float[10];
float *buffer = new float[10];
if( res == 0 ) {
cout<<"FIFO created"<<endl;
int fres = fork();
if( fres == -1 ) {
// throw an error
}
if( fres == 0 )
{
fd = open(FIFO, O_WRONLY);
int idx = 1;
while( idx <= 10) {
for(int i=0; i<10; i++) writer[i]=1*idx;
write(fd, writer, sizeof(writer)*10);
}
close(fd);
}
else
{
fd = open(FIFO, O_RDONLY);
while(1) {
read(fd, buffer, sizeof(buffer)*10);
for(int i=0; i<10; i++) printf("buf: %f",buffer[i]);
cout<<"\n"<<endl;
}
close(fd);
}
}
delete[] writer;
delete[] buffer;
}
The problem is that, by running this example, I do not get a printout of all the 10 arrays I am feeding to the pipe, whereas I keep getting always the first array (filled by 1).
Any suggestion/correction/reference is very welcome to make it work and learn more about the behavior of pipes.
EDIT:
Sorry guys! I found a very trivial error in my code: in the while loop within the writer part, I am not incrementing the index idx......once I correct it, I get the printout of all the arrays.
But now I am facing another problem: when using a lot of large arrays, these are randomly printed out (the whole sequence is not printed); as if the reader part is not able to cope with the speed of the writer. Here is the new sample code:
#include <iostream>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#define FIFO "/tmp/data"
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
int fd;
int res = mkfifo(FIFO,0777);
int N(1000);
float writer[N];
float buffer[N];
if( res == 0 ) {
cout<<"FIFO created"<<endl;
int fres = fork();
if( fres == -1 ) {
// throw an error
}
if( fres == 0 )
{
fd = open(FIFO, O_WRONLY | O_NONBLOCK);
int idx = 1;
while( idx <= 1000 ) {
for(int i=0; i<N; i++) writer[i]=1*idx;
write(fd, &writer, sizeof(float)*N);
idx++;
}
close(fd);
unlink(FIFO);
}
else
{
fd = open(FIFO, O_RDONLY);
while(1) {
int res = read(fd, &buffer, sizeof(float)*N);
if( res == 0 ) break;
for(int i=0; i<N; i++) printf(" buf: %f",buffer[i]);
cout<<"\n"<<endl;
}
close(fd);
}
}
}
Is there some mechanism to implement in order to make the write() wait until read() is still reading data from the fifo, or am I missing something trivial also in this case?
Thank you for those who have already given answers to the previous version of my question, I have implemented the suggestions.

Answer 1

The arguments to read and write are incorrect. Correct ones:
write(fd, writer, 10 * sizeof *writer);
read(fd, buffer, 10 * sizeof *buffer);
Also, these functions may do partial reads/writes, so that the code needs to check the return values to determine whether the operation must be continued.
Not sure why while( idx <= 10) loop in the writer, this loop never ends. Even on a 5GHz CPU. Same comment for the reader.