From: Eric Schwartz <emschwar@...>
Date: 2002-11-15T09:41:37+09:00
Subject: Problem writing to file after closing $stdout & $stderr

So I have a program now that starts off tests on remote machines, and
is supposed to fork itself off, wait for the tests to finish, and
fetch their logfiles back to the server.

Here's the bit of relevant code:

....

def closeFileHandles
   if($opt_debug)
      $stdin.close()
      $stderr.reopen('/tmp/stderr', 'a')
      $stdout = $stderr
   else
      $stdout.close(); $stderr.close(); $stdin.close()
   end
end

def RunTest(test,run_id)
   handle = startTest(@machine, test, run_id)
   fork {
logfile = File.open('/tmp/testout', 'a')
logfile.sync = true
logfile.puts "about to close filehandles"
     closeFileHandles()
logfile.puts "waiting for test to finish"
     sleep 20 while ProcessRunning?(handle, run_id)
logfile.puts "go get logfiles"
     getLogFiles(test, run_id)
logfile.close()
   }
end

The problem is, if $opt_debug is not set, and $stdout, $stderr, and
$stdin are closed, then no data past "about to close filehandles" gets
written to /tmp/testout.  Actually, something seems to crash the child
during or after closeFileHandles(), since I wrote this code to debug
why the logfiles weren't getting copied back.

If I'm missing something, then please clue me in; I've been tearing my
hair out trying to fix this.

-=Eric
-- 
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