signature MLTON_PROCESS =
   sig
      type pid

      val spawn: {args: string list, path: string} -> pid
      val spawne: {args: string list, env: string list, path: string} -> pid
      val spawnp: {args: string list, file: string} -> pid

      type ('stdin, 'stdout, 'stderr) t

      type input
      type output

      type none
      type chain
      type any

      exception MisuseOfForget
      exception DoublyRedirected

      structure Child:
        sig
          type ('use, 'dir) t

          val binIn: (BinIO.instream, input) t -> BinIO.instream
          val binOut: (BinIO.outstream, output) t -> BinIO.outstream
          val fd: (Posix.FileSys.file_desc, 'dir) t -> Posix.FileSys.file_desc
          val remember: (any, 'dir) t -> ('use, 'dir) t
          val textIn: (TextIO.instream, input) t -> TextIO.instream
          val textOut: (TextIO.outstream, output) t -> TextIO.outstream
        end

      structure Param:
        sig
          type ('use, 'dir) t

          val child: (chain, 'dir) Child.t -> (none, 'dir) t
          val fd: Posix.FileSys.file_desc -> (none, 'dir) t
          val file: string -> (none, 'dir) t
          val forget: ('use, 'dir) t -> (any, 'dir) t
          val null: (none, 'dir) t
          val pipe: ('use, 'dir) t
          val self: (none, 'dir) t
        end

      val create:
         {args: string list,
          env: string list option,
          path: string,
          stderr: ('stderr, output) Param.t,
          stdin: ('stdin, input) Param.t,
          stdout: ('stdout, output) Param.t}
         -> ('stdin, 'stdout, 'stderr) t
      val getStderr: ('stdin, 'stdout, 'stderr) t -> ('stderr, input) Child.t
      val getStdin:  ('stdin, 'stdout, 'stderr) t -> ('stdin, output) Child.t
      val getStdout: ('stdin, 'stdout, 'stderr) t -> ('stdout, input) Child.t
      val kill: ('stdin, 'stdout, 'stderr) t * Posix.Signal.signal -> unit
      val reap: ('stdin, 'stdout, 'stderr) t -> Posix.Process.exit_status
   end

Spawn

The spawn functions provide an alternative to the fork/exec idiom that is typically used to create a new process. On most platforms, the spawn functions are simple wrappers around fork/exec. However, under Windows, the spawn functions are primitive. All spawn functions return the process id of the spawned process. They differ in how the executable is found and the environment that it uses.

• spawn {args, path} 
  starts a new process running the executable specified by path with the arguments args. Like Posix.Process.exec.

• spawne {args, env, path} 
  starts a new process running the executable specified by path with the arguments args and environment env. Like Posix.Process.exece.

• spawnp {args, file} 
  search the PATH environment variable for an executable named file, and start a new process running that executable with the arguments args. Like Posix.Process.execp.

Create

MLton.Process.create provides functionality similar to Unix.executeInEnv, but provides more control control over the input, output, and error streams. In addition, create works on all platforms, including Cygwin and MinGW (Windows) where Posix.fork is unavailable. For greatest portability programs should still use the standard Unix.execute, Unix.executeInEnv, and OS.Process.system.

The following types and sub-structures are used by the create function. They provide static type checking of correct stream usage.

Child

• ('use, 'dir) Child.t
  This represents a handle to one of a child's standard streams. The 'dir is viewed with respect to the parent. Thus a ('a, input) Child.t handle means that the parent may input the output from the child.

• Child.{bin,text}{In,Out} h
  These functions take a handle and bind it to a stream of the named type. The type system will detect attempts to reverse the direction of a stream or to use the same stream in multiple, incompatible ways.

• Child.fd h
  This function behaves like the other Child.* functions; it opens a stream. However, it does not enforce that you read or write from the handle. If you use the descriptor in an inappropriate direction, the behavior is undefined. Furthermore, this function may potentially be unavailable on future MLton host platforms.

• Child.remember h
  This function takes a stream of use any and resets the use of the stream so that the stream may be used by Child.*. An any stream may have had use none or 'use prior to calling Param.forget. If the stream was none and is used, MisuseOfForget is raised.

Param

• ('use, 'dir) Param.t
  This is a handle to an input/output source and will be passed to the created child process. The 'dir is relative to the child process. Input means that the child process will read from this stream.

• Param.child h
  Connect the stream of the new child process to the stream of a previously created child process. A single child stream should be connected to only one child process or else DoublyRedirected will be raised.

• Param.fd fd
  This creates a stream from the provided file descriptor which will be closed when create is called. This function may not be available on future MLton host platforms.

• Param.forget h
  This hides the type of the actual parameter as any. This is useful if you are implementing an application which conditionally attaches the child process to files or pipes. However, you must ensure that your use after Child.remember matches the original type.

• Param.file s
  Open the given file and connect it to the child process. Note that the file will be opened only when create is called. So any exceptions will be raised there and not by this function. If used for input, the file is opened read-only. If used for output, the file is opened read-write.

• Param.null
  In some situations, the child process should have its output discarded. The null param when passed as stdout or stderr does this. When used for stdin, the child process will either receive EOF or a failure condition if it attempts to read from stdin.

• Param.pipe
  This will connect the input/output of the child process to a pipe which the parent process holds. This may later form the input to one of the Child.* functions and/or the Param.child function.

Process

• type ('stdin, 'stdout, 'stderr) t
  represents a handle to a child process. The type arguments capture how the named stream of the child process may be used.

• type any
  bypasses the type system in situations where an application does not want the it to enforce correct usage. See Child.remember and Param.forget.

• type chain
  means that the child process's stream was connected via a pipe to the parent process. The parent process may pass this pipe in turn to another child, thus chaining them together.

• type input, output
  record the direction that a stream flows. They are used as a part of Param.t and Child.t and is detailed there.

• type none
  means that the child process's stream my not be used by the parent process. This happens when the child process is connected directly to some source.

The types BinIO.instream, BinIO.outstream, TextIO.instream, TextIO.outstream, and Posix.FileSys.file_desc are also valid types with which to instantiate child streams.

• exception MisuseOfForget
  may be raised if Child.remember and Param.forget are used to bypass the normal type checking. This exception will only be raised in cases where the forget mechanism allows a misuse that would be impossible with the type-safe versions.

• exception DoublyRedirected
  raised if a stream connected to a child process is redirected to two separate child processes. It is safe, though bad style, to use the a Child.t with the same Child.* function repeatedly.

• create {args, path, env, stderr, stdin, stdout} 
  starts a child process with the given command-line args (excluding the program name). path should be an absolute path to the executable run in the new child process; relative paths work, but are less robust. Optionally, the environment may be overridden with env where each string element has the form "key=value". The std* options must be provided by the Param.* functions documented above.

  Processes which are created must be either reaped or killed.

• getStd{in,out,err} proc
  gets a handle to the specified stream. These should be used by the Child.* functions. Failure to use a stream connected via pipe to a child process may result in runtime dead-lock and elicits a compiler warning.

• kill (proc, sig)
  terminates the child process immediately. The signal may or may not mean anything depending on the host platform. A good value is Posix.Signal.term.

• reap proc
  waits for the child process to terminate and return its exit status.

Important usage notes

When building an application with many pipes between child processes, it is important to ensure that there are no cycles in the undirected pipe graph. If this property is not maintained, deadlocks are a very serious potential bug which may only appear under difficult to reproduce conditions.

The danger lies in that most operating systems implement pipes with a fixed buffer size. If process A has two output pipes which process B reads, it can happen that process A blocks writing to pipe 2 because it is full while process B blocks reading from pipe 1 because it is empty. This same situation can happen with any undirected cycle formed between processes (vertexes) and pipes (undirected edges) in the graph.

It is possible to make this safe using low-level I/O primitives for polling. However, these primitives are not very portable and difficult to use properly. A far better approach is to make sure you never create a cycle in the first place.

For these reasons, the Unix.executeInEnv is a very dangerous function. Be careful when using it to ensure that the child process only operates on either stdin or stdout, but not both.

Example use of MLton.Process.create

The following example program launches the ipconfig utility, pipes its output through grep, and then reads the result back into the program.

open MLton.Process
val p = 
        create {args = [ "/all" ],
                env = NONE,
                path = "C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ipconfig.exe",
                stderr = Param.self,
                stdin = Param.null,
                stdout = Param.pipe}
val q =
        create {args = [ "IP-Ad" ],
                env = NONE,
                path = "C:\\msys\\bin\\grep.exe",
                stderr = Param.self,
                stdin = Param.child (getStdout p),
                stdout = Param.pipe}
fun suck h =
        case TextIO.inputLine h of
                NONE => ()
                | SOME s => (print ("'" ^ s ^ "'\n"); suck h)

val () = suck (Child.textIn (getStdout q))