Use Pipes (or receive input and output from a console) - Embarcadero: D...

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How To
Use Pipes (or receive input and output from a console)
faq102-7402
Posted: 13 Nov 10 (Edited 21 Jun 11)
The question that is usually asked is: How do I run a command-line process, capture the output to a form, and provide input from a form?
Pipes are an OS facility provided to share memory between applications. They are ideal in most cases for directly receiving the output and providing input to a
command-line program. But they can be applied to any case where an inter-process communication can be desired.
Microsoft reference on Pipes
Complete code will not be posted here, but a downloadable sample will be provided.
Pipes are handled much like files are. You open them, write/read from them and close them. However, they are different in that each pipe has both an input
and an output. Both must be assigned and addressed. The analogy of a real pipe can be useful to understand this.
Create a Pipe
To do that you use the CreatePipe. The call looks like this:
CODE

var
Security : TSecurityAttributes;
With Security do
begin
nlength := SizeOf(TSecurityAttributes) ;
binherithandle := true;
lpsecuritydescriptor := nil;
end;
CreatePipe(InputPipeRead, InputPipeWrite, @Security, 0);
The security attributes block usually must be present for this to work, and seems to generally work well as listed.
InputPipeRead and InputPipeWrite are the two ends of the pipe and these handles are used to address the pipe.
Read and Write from a Pipe
The standard processes used to write or read a file are also used to read from and write to a pipe. These are ReadFile and WriteFile. These work much like
blockread or blockwrite.
CODE

WriteFile(OutputPipe, Instring[1], Length(Instring), byteswritten, nil);

Read example later. Full examples are in the file below, along with other places.
Do I have something in the pipe line?
The question of reading a pipe has this question first and foremost, since there is always the possibility of having nothing to read. This is solved by the
PeekNamedPipe function. It checks the pipe and returns information related to its state. Attempting to read an empty pipe will cause a program crash, so
using this function is a necessity.
CODE

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PeekNamedPipe(InputPipe, nil, PipeSize, @BytesRead, @PipeSize, @BytesRem);

if BytesRead > 0 then
ReadFile(InputPipe, TextBuffer, pipesize, bytesread, nil);
While you can control how fast you can send input to a program, you can't control how fast a program sends its output to you (for example, issuing dir /s
sends a lot of text very fast). So define a big enough buffer to receive any output you get as quickly as possible (so you don't lose any), since this is a realtime
process and pipes are limited in their buffer size. I used 32K and it seemed to work well in all my testing.
Closing a Pipe
As with any resource, you have to close it when you are done with it. With pipes you have to close both ends.
CODE

CloseHandle(InputPipeRead);
CloseHandle(InputPipeWrite);
Hooking up the pipeline
Now that we have the basics of pipes down, the question now comes of how one is hooked up to a command-line process in order to route the input and
output through my form. In a CreateProcess call, you do this by specifying one side of the pipe for each of the standard console handles.
CODE

start.hStdInput := InputPipeRead;
start.hStdOutput := OutputPipeWrite;
start.hStdError := ErrorPipeWrite;
Now this part gets conceptually confusing. From your program's perspective you WRITE input and READ output - I used these handle names in this order as
a mnemonic to aid the concept.
From the perspective of the command-line app, StdInput is what is read from, StdOutput is what is written to. StdError is written when any error messages
occur (for example, "'xxxx' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.") - you might not have these in directly calling a command-line program, but it is always safe to define it.
Real-Time Process
Since piping from a command-line program is a real-time process, you will need to handle any significant inputs or outputs within a thread process. An
illustration is in the sample using TThread, but any method will work.
Full Sample Source Is Below
CODE

unit mcunit;
{ written by Glenn9999 @ tek-tips.com.
interface

Posted here 6/21/2011 }

uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms, Dialogs,
StdCtrls;
type
monitor = class(TThread) // pipe monitoring thread for console output
private
TextString: String;
procedure UpdateCaption;
protected
procedure Execute; override;
end;
TForm1 = class(TForm)
CommandText: TMemo;
CommandRun: TComboBox;
Button2: TButton;
SaveDialog1: TSaveDialog;
procedure FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
procedure Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
private
{ Private declarations }
public
{ Public declarations }

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cmdcount: integer;
end;
var
Form1: TForm1;
InputPipeRead, InputPipeWrite: THandle;
OutputPipeRead, OutputPipeWrite: THandle;
ErrorPipeRead, ErrorPipeWrite: THandle;
ProcessInfo : TProcessInformation;
myThread: monitor;
implementation
{$R *.DFM}
procedure WritePipeOut(OutputPipe: THandle; InString: string);
// writes Instring to the pipe handle described by OutputPipe
var
byteswritten: DWord;
begin
// most console programs require CR/LF after their input.
InString := InString + #13#10;
WriteFile(OutputPipe, Instring[1], Length(Instring), byteswritten, nil);
end;
function ReadPipeInput(InputPipe: THandle; var BytesRem: Integer): String;
{
reads console output from InputPipe. Returns the input in function
result. Returns bytes of remaining information to BytesRem
}
var
TextBuffer: array[1..32767] of char;
TextString: String;
BytesRead: Integer;
PipeSize: Integer;
begin
Result := '';
PipeSize := Sizeof(TextBuffer);
// check if there is something to read in pipe
PeekNamedPipe(InputPipe, nil, PipeSize, @BytesRead, @PipeSize, @BytesRem);
if bytesread > 0 then
begin
ReadFile(InputPipe, TextBuffer, pipesize, bytesread, nil);
// a requirement for Windows OS system components
OemToChar(@TextBuffer, @TextBuffer);
TextString := String(TextBuffer);
SetLength(TextString, BytesRead);
Result := TextString;
end;
end;
procedure monitor.Execute;
{ monitor thread execution for console output. This must be threaded.
checks the error and output pipes for information every 40 ms, pulls the
data in and updates the memo on the form with the output }
var
BytesRem: DWord;
begin
while not Terminated do
begin
// read regular output stream and put on screen.
TextString := ReadPipeInput(OutputPipeRead, BytesRem);
if TextString <> '' then
Synchronize(UpdateCaption);
// now read error stream and put that on screen.

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TextString := ReadPipeInput(ErrorPipeRead, BytesRem);

if TextString <> '' then
Synchronize(UpdateCaption);
sleep(40);
end;
end;
procedure monitor.UpdateCaption;
// synchronize procedure for monitor thread - updates memo on form.
begin
With Form1.CommandText.Lines do
Add(TextString);
end;
procedure TForm1.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
begin
WritePipeOut(InputPipeWrite, 'EXIT'); // quit the CMD we started
MyThread.Terminate;
// close process handles
CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hProcess);
CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hThread);
// close pipe handles
CloseHandle(InputPipeRead);
CloseHandle(InputPipeWrite);
CloseHandle(OutputPipeRead);
CloseHandle(OutputPipeWrite);
CloseHandle(ErrorPipeRead);
CloseHandle(ErrorPipeWrite);
end;
procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
{ takes the input from the command edit box and processes it }
var
UpText: String;
begin
UpText := UpperCase(CommandRun.Text); // done to eliminate case-sensitivity
if UpText = 'CLR' then
// clear the memo
begin
CommandText.Clear;
WritePipeOut(InputPipeWrite, #13);
end
else
if UpText = 'SAVELOG' then
// save the memo box to a file.
begin
if SaveDialog1.Execute then
begin
CommandText.Lines.SaveToFile(SaveDialog1.FileName);
CommandText.Lines.Add('Log file saved.');
end
else
CommandText.Lines.Add('Log file not saved.');
end
// expand this, it needs to catch any variation where the command-interpreter
// is called. Any different ideas?
else
if UpText = 'CMD' then
inc(cmdcount)
else
if UpText = 'COMMAND' then
inc(cmdcount)
// terminate app if user types exit, else let alone
else
if UpText = 'EXIT' then
begin
if cmdcount = 1 then

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Application.Terminate
else
dec(cmdcount);
end
else
WritePipeOut(InputPipeWrite, CommandRun.Text);
CommandRun.Items.Add(CommandRun.Text);
CommandRun.Text := '';
CommandRun.SetFocus;
end;
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
{ upon form creation, this calls the command-interpreter, sets up the three
pipes to catch input and output, and starts a thread to monitor and show
the output of the command-interpreter }
var
DosApp: String;
DosSize: Integer;
Security : TSecurityAttributes;
start : TStartUpInfo;
begin
CommandText.Clear;
// get COMSPEC variable, this is the path of the command-interpreter
SetLength(Dosapp, 255);
DosSize := GetEnvironmentVariable('COMSPEC', @DosApp[1], 255);
SetLength(Dosapp, DosSize);
// create pipes
With Security do
begin
nlength := SizeOf(TSecurityAttributes) ;
binherithandle := true;
lpsecuritydescriptor := nil;
end;
CreatePipe(InputPipeRead, InputPipeWrite, @Security, 0);
CreatePipe(OutputPipeRead, OutputPipeWrite, @Security, 0);
CreatePipe(ErrorPipeRead, ErrorPipeWrite, @Security, 0);
// start command-interpreter
FillChar(Start,Sizeof(Start),#0) ;
start.cb := SizeOf(start) ;
start.hStdInput := InputPipeRead;
start.hStdOutput := OutputPipeWrite;
start.hStdError := ErrorPipeWrite;
start.dwFlags := STARTF_USESTDHANDLES + STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
start.wShowWindow := SW_HIDE;
if CreateProcess(nil, PChar(DosApp), @Security, @Security, true,
CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE or SYNCHRONIZE,
nil, nil, start, ProcessInfo) then
begin
MyThread := monitor.Create(false); // start monitor thread
MyThread.Priority := tpHigher;
end;
Button2.Enabled := true;
cmdcount := 1;
end;
end.
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