Expand wxString overview and document some problems due to its dual nature.
[wxWidgets.git] / interface / wx / process.h
1 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2 // Name: process.h
3 // Purpose: interface of wxProcess
4 // Author: wxWidgets team
5 // RCS-ID: $Id$
6 // Licence: wxWindows licence
7 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
8
9
10 /**
11 @class wxProcess
12
13 The objects of this class are used in conjunction with the ::wxExecute() function.
14 When a wxProcess object is passed to ::wxExecute(), its OnTerminate() virtual method
15 is called when the process terminates. This allows the program to be (asynchronously)
16 notified about the process termination and also retrieve its exit status which is
17 unavailable from ::wxExecute() in the case of asynchronous execution.
18
19 @note
20 If the @c wxEVT_END_PROCESS event sent after termination is processed by the
21 parent, then it is responsible for deleting the wxProcess object which sent it.
22 However, if it is not processed, the object will <b>delete itself</b> and so the
23 library users should only delete those objects whose notifications have been
24 processed (and call wxProcess::Detach for others).
25 This also means that unless you're going to process the @c wxEVT_END_PROCESS event,
26 you <b>must</b> allocate the wxProcess class on the heap.
27
28 wxProcess also supports IO redirection of the child process. For this, you have
29 to call its Redirect() method before passing it to ::wxExecute().
30 If the child process was launched successfully, GetInputStream(), GetOutputStream()
31 and GetErrorStream() can then be used to retrieve the streams corresponding to the
32 child process standard output, input and error output respectively.
33
34 @beginEventEmissionTable{wxProcessEvent}
35 @event{EVT_END_PROCESS(id, func)}
36 Process a @c wxEVT_END_PROCESS event, sent by wxProcess::OnTerminate upon
37 the external process termination.
38 @endEventTable
39
40 @library{wxbase}
41 @category{appmanagement}
42
43 @beginWxPerlOnly
44 In wxPerl this class has an additional @c Destroy method,
45 for explicit destruction.
46 @endWxPerlOnly
47
48 @see wxExecute(), @ref page_samples_exec
49 */
50 class wxProcess : public wxEvtHandler
51 {
52 public:
53 /**
54 Constructs a process object. @a id is only used in the case you want to
55 use wxWidgets events. It identifies this object, or another window that will
56 receive the event.
57
58 If the @a parent parameter is different from @NULL, it will receive
59 a @c wxEVT_END_PROCESS notification event (you should insert @c EVT_END_PROCESS
60 macro in the event table of the parent to handle it) with the given @a id.
61
62 @param parent
63 The event handler parent.
64 @param id
65 id of an event.
66 */
67 wxProcess(wxEvtHandler* parent = NULL, int id = -1);
68
69 /**
70 Creates an object without any associated parent (and hence no id neither)
71 but allows to specify the @a flags which can have the value of
72 @c wxPROCESS_DEFAULT or @c wxPROCESS_REDIRECT.
73
74 Specifying the former value has no particular effect while using the latter
75 one is equivalent to calling Redirect().
76 */
77 wxProcess(int flags);
78
79 /**
80 Destroys the wxProcess object.
81 */
82 virtual ~wxProcess();
83
84 /**
85 Closes the output stream (the one connected to the stdin of the child
86 process).
87
88 This function can be used to indicate to the child process that
89 there is no more data to be read - usually, a filter program will only
90 terminate when the input stream is closed.
91
92 Notice that GetOutputStream() will return @NULL after the output stream
93 is closed.
94 */
95 void CloseOutput();
96
97 /**
98 Detaches this event handler from the parent specified in the constructor
99 (see wxEvtHandler::Unlink() for a similar but not identical function).
100
101 Normally, a wxProcess object is deleted by its parent when it receives the
102 notification about the process termination.
103
104 However, it might happen that the parent object is destroyed before the external
105 process is terminated (e.g. a window from which this external process was launched
106 is closed by the user) and in this case it @b should not delete the wxProcess
107 object, but @b should call Detach() instead.
108
109 After the wxProcess object is detached from its parent, no notification events
110 will be sent to the parent and the object will delete itself upon reception of
111 the process termination notification.
112 */
113 void Detach();
114
115 /**
116 Returns @true if the given process exists in the system.
117
118 @see Kill(), @ref page_samples_exec "Exec sample"
119 */
120 static bool Exists(int pid);
121
122 /**
123 Returns an input stream which corresponds to the standard error output (stderr)
124 of the child process.
125 */
126 wxInputStream* GetErrorStream() const;
127
128 /**
129 It returns an input stream corresponding to the standard output stream of the
130 subprocess. If it is @NULL, you have not turned on the redirection.
131
132 @see Redirect().
133 */
134 wxInputStream* GetInputStream() const;
135
136 /**
137 It returns an output stream corresponding to the input stream of the subprocess.
138
139 If it is @NULL, you have not turned on the redirection or already
140 called CloseOutput().
141
142 @see Redirect().
143 */
144 wxOutputStream* GetOutputStream() const;
145
146 /**
147 Returns the process ID of the process launched by Open() or set by
148 wxExecute() (if you passed this wxProcess as argument).
149 */
150 long GetPid() const;
151
152 /**
153 Returns @true if there is data to be read on the child process standard
154 error stream.
155
156 @see IsInputAvailable()
157 */
158 bool IsErrorAvailable() const;
159
160 /**
161 Returns @true if there is data to be read on the child process standard
162 output stream.
163
164 This allows to write simple (and extremely inefficient) polling-based code
165 waiting for a better mechanism in future wxWidgets versions.
166 See the @ref page_samples_exec "exec sample" for an example of using this
167 function.
168
169 @see IsInputOpened()
170 */
171 bool IsInputAvailable() const;
172
173 /**
174 Returns @true if the child process standard output stream is opened.
175 */
176 bool IsInputOpened() const;
177
178 /**
179 Send the specified signal to the given process. Possible signal values
180 can be one of the ::wxSignal enumeration values.
181
182 @c wxSIGNONE, @c wxSIGKILL and @c wxSIGTERM have the same meaning
183 under both Unix and Windows but all the other signals are equivalent to
184 @c wxSIGTERM under Windows.
185
186 The @a flags parameter can be @c wxKILL_NOCHILDREN (the default),
187 or @c wxKILL_CHILDREN, in which case the child processes of this
188 process will be killed too. Note that under Unix, for @c wxKILL_CHILDREN
189 to work you should have created the process passing @c wxEXEC_MAKE_GROUP_LEADER.
190
191 Returns the element of ::wxKillError enum.
192
193 @see Exists(), wxKill(), @ref page_samples_exec "Exec sample"
194 */
195 static wxKillError Kill(int pid, wxSignal sig = wxSIGTERM,
196 int flags = wxKILL_NOCHILDREN);
197
198 /**
199 It is called when the process with the pid @a pid finishes.
200 It raises a wxWidgets event when it isn't overridden.
201
202 Note that this function won't be called if you Kill() the process.
203
204 @param pid
205 The pid of the process which has just terminated.
206 @param status
207 The exit code of the process.
208 */
209 virtual void OnTerminate(int pid, int status);
210
211 /**
212 This static method replaces the standard @c popen() function: it launches
213 the process specified by the @a cmd parameter and returns the wxProcess
214 object which can be used to retrieve the streams connected to the standard
215 input, output and error output of the child process.
216
217 If the process couldn't be launched, @NULL is returned.
218
219 @remarks
220 In any case the returned pointer should @b not be deleted, rather the process
221 object will be destroyed automatically when the child process terminates. This
222 does mean that the child process should be told to quit before the main program
223 exits to avoid memory leaks.
224
225 @param cmd
226 The command to execute, including optional arguments.
227 @param flags
228 The flags to pass to ::wxExecute().
229 Note: @c wxEXEC_SYNC should not be used.
230
231 @return A pointer to new wxProcess object or @NULL on error.
232
233 @see ::wxExecute()
234 */
235 static wxProcess* Open(const wxString& cmd,
236 int flags = wxEXEC_ASYNC);
237
238 /**
239 Turns on redirection.
240
241 ::wxExecute() will try to open a couple of pipes to catch the subprocess stdio.
242 The caught input stream is returned by GetOutputStream() as a non-seekable stream.
243 The caught output stream is returned by GetInputStream() as a non-seekable stream.
244 */
245 void Redirect();
246
247 /**
248 Sets the priority of the process, between 0 (lowest) and 100 (highest).
249 It can only be set before the process is created.
250
251 The following symbolic constants can be used in addition to raw
252 values in 0..100 range:
253 - @b wxPRIORITY_MIN: 0
254 - @b wxPRIORITY_DEFAULT: 50
255 - @b wxPRIORITY_MAX: 100
256
257 @since 2.9.5
258 */
259 void SetPriority(unsigned priority);
260 };
261
262
263
264 /**
265 @class wxProcessEvent
266
267 A process event is sent to the wxEvtHandler specified to wxProcess
268 when a process is terminated.
269
270 @beginEventTable{wxProcessEvent}
271 @event{EVT_END_PROCESS(id, func)}
272 Process a @c wxEVT_END_PROCESS event. @a id is the identifier of the process
273 object (the id passed to the wxProcess constructor) or a window to receive
274 the event.
275 @endEventTable
276
277 @library{wxbase}
278 @category{events}
279
280 @see wxProcess, @ref overview_events
281 */
282 class wxProcessEvent : public wxEvent
283 {
284 public:
285 /**
286 Constructor.
287
288 Takes a wxProcessObject or window id, a process id and an exit status.
289 */
290 wxProcessEvent(int id = 0, int pid = 0, int exitcode = 0);
291
292 /**
293 Returns the exist status.
294 */
295 int GetExitCode();
296
297 /**
298 Returns the process id.
299 */
300 int GetPid();
301 };
302
303
304 wxEventType wxEVT_END_PROCESS;
305