How can I read from `exec.Cmd` ExtraFiles fd in child process? - go

Question

I read the explanation from golang.org, it says like below.
// ExtraFiles specifies additional open files to be inherited by the
// new process. It does not include standard input, standard output, or
// standard error. If non-nil, entry i becomes file descriptor 3+i.
//
// BUG: on OS X 10.6, child processes may sometimes inherit unwanted fds.
// http://golang.org/issue/2603
ExtraFiles []*os.File
I'm not very understand about it ? For example I have such code below.
cmd := &exec.Cmd{
Path: init,
Args: initArgs,
}
cmd.Stdin = Stdin
cmd.Stdout = Stdout
cmd.Stderr = Stderr
cmd.Dir = Rootfs
cmd.ExtraFiles = []*os.File{childPipe}
Is that mean, since I have written a childpipe in cmd.ExtraFiles = []*os.File{childPipe}, I can use it by writing fd 3 directly.
pipe = os.NewFile(uintptr(3), "pipe")
json.NewEncoder(pipe).Encode(newThing)
Thanks if anyone can give some help!

Answer 1

Correct; you can read from the pipe by creating a new *File whose file descriptor is that of the child pipe. Below is a example of piping data from the child process to the parent:
Parent:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"os/exec"
"os"
"encoding/json"
)
func main() {
init := "child"
initArgs := []string{"hello world"}
r, w, err := os.Pipe()
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
cmd := exec.Command(init, initArgs...)
cmd.Stdin = os.Stdin
cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr
cmd.ExtraFiles = []*os.File{w}
if err := cmd.Start(); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
var data interface{}
decoder := json.NewDecoder(r)
if err := decoder.Decode(&data); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Printf("Data received from child pipe: %v\n", data)
}
Child:
package main
import (
"os"
"encoding/json"
"strings"
"fmt"
)
func main() {
if len(os.Args) < 2 {
os.Exit(1)
}
arg := strings.ToUpper(os.Args[1])
pipe := os.NewFile(uintptr(3), "pipe")
err := json.NewEncoder(pipe).Encode(arg)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Println("This message printed to standard output, not to the pipe")
}