process/doc/stdio.adoc

= stdio

When using io with a subprocess, all three standard streams (stdin, stdout, stderr) get set for the child-process.
The default setting is to inherit the parent process.

This feature meant to be flexible, which is why there is little checking on the arguments assigned to one of those streams. 

== Pipes

asio pipes can be used for io. When using in process_stdio they will get 
automatically connected and the other side will get assigned to the child process:

.example/stdio.cpp:20-29
[source,cpp,indent=0]
----
include::../example/stdio.cpp[tag=readable_pipe]
----

readable pipes can be assigned to `out` and `err`, while writable_pipes can be assigned to `in`.

== `FILE*`

`FILE*` can also be used for either side; this allows the `stdin`, `stderr`, `stdout` macros to be used:

.example/stdio.cpp:35-38
[source,cpp]
----
include::../example/stdio.cpp[tag=file]
----

== `nullptr`

`nullptr` may be used to set a given stream to be opened on the null-device (`/dev/null` on posix, `NUL` on windows). 
This is used to ignore output or give only EOF as input.

.example/stdio.cpp:43-46
[source,cpp]
----
include::../example/stdio.cpp[tag=null]
----

== `native_handle`

A native handle can be used as well, which means an `int` on posix or a `HANDLE` on windows. 
Furthermore, any object that has a `native_handle` function which returns a valid type for a stdio stream.

E.g. a domain socket on linux.

.example/stdio.cpp:52-57
[source,cpp]
----
include::../example/stdio.cpp[tag=native_handle]
----

== popen

Additionally, process v2 provides a `popen` class. 
It starts a process and connects pipes for stdin and stdout, so that the popen object can be used as a stream.

.example/stdio.cpp:63-66
[source,cpp]
----
include::../example/stdio.cpp[tag=popen]
----