From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-06-30T22:13:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Periodic retrieval fo stdout

On Fri, 30 Jun 2006, Max wrote:

> Hi,
> I am using Open3.popen to run a make command which takes 5-10 mins to
> complete. I have put the popen command in a Thread.new {}. However, it is
> still getting blocked (I have a UI written in FXRuby).
>
> 1) I want to retrieve the stdout periodically (to show in a status box)
> 2) or at the very least, I want the ruby thread to continue (it is getting
> blocked) with the UI tasks. Is the thread getting blocked due to a system
> call??
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Ajith

are you on windows?  if so you'll have a hard time making this work.  if not
you might want to try my session lib, it wraps open3 in a way that makes what
you are wanting to do quite simple.  for example you might do something like

   sh = Session.new

   command = 'program'

   status_box = widget.status_box

   Thread.new{
     exitstatus =
       sh.execute(command) do |stdout, stderr|
         if stdout
           status_box.update_stdout stdout
         end
         if stderr
           status_box.update_stderr stderr
         end
       end
   }

and this should not block your ui, in fact that's what session was designed
for.

regards.

-a
-- 
suffering increases your inner strength.  also, the wishing for suffering
makes the suffering disappear.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama