How can I run an external program from C and parse its output?

Solution 1:

As others have pointed out, popen() is the most standard way. And since no answer provided an example using this method, here it goes:

#include <stdio.h>

#define BUFSIZE 128

int parse_output(void) {
    char *cmd = "ls -l";    

    char buf[BUFSIZE];
    FILE *fp;

    if ((fp = popen(cmd, "r")) == NULL) {
        printf("Error opening pipe!\n");
        return -1;
    }

    while (fgets(buf, BUFSIZE, fp) != NULL) {
        // Do whatever you want here...
        printf("OUTPUT: %s", buf);
    }

    if(pclose(fp))  {
        printf("Command not found or exited with error status\n");
        return -1;
    }

    return 0;
}

Sample output:

OUTPUT: total 16
OUTPUT: -rwxr-xr-x 1 14077 14077 8832 Oct 19 04:32 a.out
OUTPUT: -rw-r--r-- 1 14077 14077 1549 Oct 19 04:32 main.c

Solution 2:

For simple problems in Unix-ish environments try popen().

From the man page:

The popen() function opens a process by creating a pipe, forking and invoking the shell.

If you use the read mode this is exactly what you asked for. I don't know if it is implemented in Windows.

For more complicated problems you want to look up inter-process communication.

Solution 3:

popen is supported on Windows, see here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/96ayss4b.aspx

If you want it to be cross-platform, popen is the way to go.

Solution 4:

Well, assuming you're on a command line in a windows environment, you can use pipes or command line redirects. For instance,

commandThatOutputs.exe > someFileToStoreResults.txt

commandThatOutputs.exe | yourProgramToProcessInput.exe

Within your program, you could use the C standard input functions to read the other programs output (scanf, etc.): http://irc.essex.ac.uk/www.iota-six.co.uk/c/c1_standard_input_and_output.asp . You could also use the file example and use fscanf. This should also work in Unix/Linux.

This is a very generic question, you may want to include more details, like what type of output it is (just text, or a binary file?) and how you want to process it.

Edit: Hooray clarification!

Redirecting STDOUT looks to be troublesome, I've had to do it in .NET, and it gave me all sorts of headaches. It looks like the proper C way is to spawn a child process, get a file pointer, and all of a sudden my head hurts.

So heres a hack that uses temporary files. It's simple, but it should work. This will work well if speed isn't an issue (hitting the disk is slow), or if it's throw-away. If you're building an enterprise program, looking into the STDOUT redirection is probably best, using what other people recommended.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    FILE * fptr;                    // file holder
    char c;                         // char buffer


    system("dir >> temp.txt");      // call dir and put it's contents in a temp using redirects.
    fptr = fopen("temp.txt", "r");  // open said file for reading.
                                    // oh, and check for fptr being NULL.
    while(1){
        c = fgetc(fptr);
        if(c!= EOF)
            printf("%c", c);        // do what you need to.
        else
            break;                  // exit when you hit the end of the file.
    }
    fclose(fptr);                   // don't call this is fptr is NULL.  
    remove("temp.txt");             // clean up

    getchar();                      // stop so I can see if it worked.
}

Make sure to check your file permissions: right now this will simply throw the file in the same directory as an exe. You might want to look into using /tmp in nix, or C:\Users\username\Local Settings\Temp in Vista, or C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp in 2K/XP. I think the /tmp will work in OSX, but I've never used one.

Solution 5:

In Linux and OS X, popen() really is your best bet, as dmckee pointed out, since both OSs support that call. In Windows, this should help: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682499.aspx