REQ: add a non-closing version of handleToFd

[Simon Marlow]

On 01/10/2011 12:31, Volker Wysk wrote:
> Hello
>
> The function to extract a file descriptor from a handle, handleToFd, closes
> the handle as a side effect. This appears to be necessary in the general
> case, otherwise the implementers wouldn't have made it this way.
>
> But there are cases in which it isn't necessary to close the handle.
>
> For instance, this little function needs to extract the file descriptor, but
> there is no need to close, or change, the handle.
>
>
> isatty :: Handle        -- ^ Handle to check
>         ->  IO Bool       -- ^ Whether the handle is connected to a terminal
> isatty h = do
>     fd<- handleToFd_noclose h
>     isterm<- {# call isatty as hssh_c_isatty #}    -- this is c2hs
>                     ((fromIntegral fd) :: CInt)
>     return (isterm /= (0::CInt))
>
> handleToFd_noclose :: Handle ->  IO Fd
> -- to be implemented
>
>
> The isatty above can't be implemented with things the way they are. To me,
> this is a serious drawback.
>
> The cases, in which the handle needs to be closed, should be identified, and
> documented. Then, a version of handleToFd, which doesn't close the handle can
> be implemented.

There's another danger.  A Handle has an associated finalizer that 
closes the file descriptor when the Handle is no longer needed by the 
program, so you can't make a handleToFd_noClose because the Handle might 
be closed anyway.  What you can do is make a withHandleFD:

   withHandleFD :: Handle -> (FD -> IO a) -> IO a

it's still quite dodgy, depending on what you do with the FD.  Perhaps 
it should be called unsafeWithHandleFD.

Anyway, patches gratefully accepted...

Cheers,
	Simon