NSTask NSPipe - objective c command line help
Solution 1:
Xcode Bug
There's a bug in Xcode that stops it from printing any output after a a new task using standard output is launched (it collects all output, but no longer prints anything). You're going to have to call [task setStandardInput:[NSPipe pipe]]
to get it to show output again (or, alternatively, have the task print to stderr instead of stdout).
Suggestion for final code:
NSTask *server = [NSTask new];
[server setLaunchPath:@"/bin/sh"];
[server setArguments:[NSArray arrayWithObject:@"/path/to/server.sh"]];
[server setCurrentDirectoryPath:@"/path/to/current/directory/"];
NSPipe *outputPipe = [NSPipe pipe];
[server setStandardInput:[NSPipe pipe]];
[server setStandardOutput:outputPipe];
[server launch];
[server waitUntilExit]; // Alternatively, make it asynchronous.
[server release];
NSData *outputData = [[outputPipe fileHandleForReading] readDataToEndOfFile];
NSString *outputString = [[[NSString alloc] initWithData:outputData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] autorelease]; // Autorelease optional, depending on usage.
Solution 2:
The solution above is freezing because it's synchronous.
Call to [server waitUntilExit]
blocks the run loop until the tasks is done.
Here's the async solution for getting the task output.
task.standardOutput = [NSPipe pipe];
[[task.standardOutput fileHandleForReading] setReadabilityHandler:^(NSFileHandle *file) {
NSData *data = [file availableData]; // this will read to EOF, so call only once
NSLog(@"Task output! %@", [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]);
// if you're collecting the whole output of a task, you may store it on a property
[self.taskOutput appendData:data];
}];
Probably you want to repeat the same above for task.standardError
.
IMPORTANT:
When your task terminates, you have to set readabilityHandler block to nil; otherwise, you'll encounter high CPU usage, as the reading will never stop.
[task setTerminationHandler:^(NSTask *task) {
// do your stuff on completion
[task.standardOutput fileHandleForReading].readabilityHandler = nil;
[task.standardError fileHandleForReading].readabilityHandler = nil;
}];
This is all asynchronous (and you should do it async), so your method should have a ^completion block.