[Haskell-cafe] Re: process

[Bryan O'Sullivan]

Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:

> Just because *your* end of each pipe is a line-buffered file handle has 
> no bearing on the *other* process's management of its pair of endpoints. 
>  For example, on a Unix-like system, the other process's stdio will 
> block-buffer stdin and stdout by default if it finds that they're not 
> attached to tty-like file descriptors.

In case the implications of this aren't clear, let me expand a little.

You've got a line-buffered stdout.  You write "1+1\n", which sends 4 
bytes to the other process.

It's got a block-buffered stdin, so it's going to sit in its first read 
until it receives 512 bytes (or whatever the buffer size is) from you. 
And an oversized violin, you have a deadlock!

The converse bites you, too.  You want to read a line from the other 
process.  It writes "1+1\n" to you, but its stdio buffers up the 4 bytes 
because it hasn't reached the 512-byte watermark.  It then tries to read 
from you, but you're still blocked trying to read the first line (that 
it hasn't actually sent) from it.  Deadlock.

	<b