Sending input data to child process in node.js

Question

I am writing code to create an online c++ compiler in node.js environment.Using spawn function i created a child process which will compile the code and execute it and send the output back to the user. But i need to send input to the running c++ program . I used child.stdin.write('data'); for sending data to child but i think cin in the program is not receiving the input .
Please help me to send the input to the running c++ code.
Thanks.

Answer 1

You should probably use either cluster, or fork if you want to pass messages... if you do this, node will setup IPC for you to be able to communicate via process.send

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Alternatively, you could use a pub/sub system for communication channels (Redis works well for this), this is also your best bet if you need communications across servers.

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Below is an example of an older work script...

var env = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'dev';
var cluster = require("cluster");

//TODO: need to adjust to use domains for this work
process.on('uncaughtException', function (err) {
  console.error('GENERAL EXCEPTION IN %s: %s', process.env.WORKER_TYPE || 'MASTER',err);
  if (err.stack) console.error(err.stack);
  if (cluster.isWorker) {
    //process.send notifies the parent process of the error
    process.send({
      err: {
        "str": err && err.toString() || "unknown error"
        ,"message": err && err.message || null
        ,"stack": err && err.stack || null
      }
    });
  }
  process.nextTick(function(){
    process.exit(666);
  });
});


if (cluster.isMaster) startMaster();
if (cluster.isWorker) startWorker();

function startMaster() {
  createWorker("foo");
  createWorker("bar");
}

function createWorker(workerType) {
  var worker = cluster.fork({"WORKER_TYPE":workerType}); //passes environment variables to child
  worker.on('online',onOnline.bind(null, worker));
  worker.on('message',onMessage.bind(null, worker)); 
  worker.on('exit',onExit.bind(null, worker));
  worker.workerType = workerType;
  return worker; 
  // you can use worker.send() to send a message that 
  // will raise a message event in the child
}

function startWorker() {
  console.log("Running Worker: %s %s", cluster.worker.id, process.env.WORKER_TYPE);
  setTimeout(process.exit.bind(process,0), 5000); //close in 5 seconds
  //you may want to load a specific module based on WORKER_TYPE
}

function onOnline(worker) {
  console.log("Worker Online: %s %s", worker.id, worker.workerType);
  //console.log(arguments);
}

function onMessage(worker, msg) {
  if (msg.err) {
    console.warn("Error From", worker.id, worker.workerType, msg.err);
  } else {
    console.log("Message From", worker.id, worker.workerType);
  }
  //console.log(arguments);
}

function onExit(worker, code, signal) {
  console.log("Worker Exited: %s %s %s %s", worker.id, worker.workerType, code, signal);

    if (env == 'dev') {
        //for now just exit the whole thing (dev mode)
        process.nextTick(function(){
            process.exit(1);
        });
    } else {
        //workers should simply keep working...
        //fire off a new worker
        createWorker(worker.workerType);
    }

}

Answer 2

1.Create a file with input data.
2.Create a ReadStream opening input file.
3.Pipe the ReadStream with childprocess.stdin.

file=fs.createReadStream('input.txt',{encoding:'utf8'});
file.pipe(childprocess.stdin);

This worked for me .