FILE * and istream: connect the two? - c++

Question

Suppose I "popen" an executable, I get a FILE* in return. Furthermore, suppose I'd like to "connect" this file to an istream object for easier processing, is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

You can get away by deriving std::basic_streambuf or std::streambuf classes.
Something along these lines:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <iostream>
#define BUFFER_SIZE 1024
class popen_streambuf : public std::streambuf {
public:
popen_streambuf() : fp(NULL) {
}
~popen_streambuf() {
close();
}
popen_streambuf *open(const char *command, const char *mode) {
fp = popen(command, mode);
if (fp == NULL)
return NULL;
buffer = new char_type[BUFFER_SIZE];
// It's good to check because exceptions can be disabled
if (buffer == NULL) {
close();
return NULL;
}
setg(buffer, buffer, buffer);
return this;
}
void close() {
if (fp != NULL) {
pclose(fp);
fp = NULL;
}
}
std::streamsize xsgetn(char_type *ptr, std::streamsize n) {
std::streamsize got = showmanyc();
if (n <= got) {
memcpy(ptr, gptr(), n * sizeof(char_type));
gbump(n);
return n;
}
memcpy(ptr, gptr(), got * sizeof(char_type));
gbump(got);
if (traits_type::eof() == underflow()) {
return got;
}
return (got + xsgetn(ptr + got, n - got));
}
int_type underflow() {
if (gptr() == 0) {
return traits_type::eof();
}
if (gptr() < egptr()) {
return traits_type::to_int_type(*gptr());
}
size_t len = fread(eback(), sizeof(char_type), BUFFER_SIZE, fp);
setg(eback(), eback(), eback() + (sizeof(char_type) * len));
if (0 == len) {
return traits_type::eof();
}
return traits_type::to_int_type(*gptr());
}
std::streamsize showmanyc() {
if (gptr() == 0) {
return 0;
}
if (gptr() < egptr()) {
return egptr() - gptr();
}
return 0;
}
private:
FILE *fp;
char_type *buffer;
};
int main(int argc, char *argv)
{
char c;
popen_streambuf sb;
std::istream is(&sb);
if (NULL == sb.open("ls -la", "r")) {
return 1;
}
while (is.read(&c, 1)) {
std::cout << c;
}
return 0;
}

Answer 2

There is no standard way but if you want a quick solution you can get the file descriptor with fileno() and then use Josuttis' fdstream. There may be similar efforts around but I used this in the distant past and it worked fine. If nothing else it should be a very good map to implementing your own.

Answer 3

Sure there's a way, implement your own istream that can be constructed from a FILE*.
If you're asking whether there is a standard way to do this, then no.