GtkTextView woes

Tommo · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2007 1:45 pm **Posts:** 9

Hi there, I am trying to use popen() to flush the output of a command to a GtkTextView widget. It works fine for some commands, however, when I try flush the output of mencoder, it doesn't do its job.

Code:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <gtk/gtk.h>

void closeApp ( GtkWidget *window, gpointer data ) {

     gtk_main_quit();

}

int main( int argc, char *argv[] ) {

   GtkWidget *window, *swindow;
   GtkWidget *text_view;
   GtkWidget *hbox;
   GtkTextBuffer *buffer;

   FILE *read_fp;
   char pbuffer[BUFSIZ + 1];
   int chars_read;
   char *command = "mencoder -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts bitrate=300 -o ~/output.avi ~/input.avi";

   gtk_init (&argc, &argv);

   window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
   text_view = gtk_text_view_new();
   hbox = gtk_hbox_new ( FALSE, 2 );

   gtk_window_set_default_size(GTK_WINDOW(window), 400, 400);
   gtk_window_set_title(GTK_WINDOW(window), "Command Output");

   g_signal_connect ( GTK_OBJECT (window), "destroy",
                       GTK_SIGNAL_FUNC ( closeApp), NULL);

   buffer = gtk_text_view_get_buffer (GTK_TEXT_VIEW (text_view));
   gtk_text_view_set_editable(GTK_TEXT_VIEW (text_view), FALSE);

   memset(pbuffer, '\0', sizeof(pbuffer));
   read_fp = popen(command, "r");

   if (read_fp != NULL) {

          chars_read = fread( pbuffer, sizeof( char ), BUFSIZ, read_fp );
          while (chars_read > 0) {

              pbuffer[chars_read - 1] = '\0';
              // printf("Reading:-\n %s\n", pbuffer);
              chars_read = fread(pbuffer, sizeof(char), BUFSIZ, read_fp);

          }

      gtk_text_buffer_set_text (buffer, pbuffer, -1);   

   }


   swindow = gtk_scrolled_window_new (NULL, NULL);
    gtk_scrolled_window_set_policy (GTK_SCROLLED_WINDOW (swindow),
                                  GTK_POLICY_AUTOMATIC,
                                  GTK_POLICY_AUTOMATIC);

   gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(hbox), swindow, TRUE, TRUE, 5);
   
    gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(swindow), text_view);
   gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(window), hbox);

     gtk_widget_show_all(window);

   pclose(read_fp);

     gtk_main ();

     return 0;

}

Any ideas?

Tommo · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2007 1:45 pm **Posts:** 9

Nobody? I tracked down this thread which is essentially the same thing as I am trying to do.

skoona · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:59 pm

Tommo,

You did not say how the program failed. My guess is it stalls.

"char *fgets(char *s, int size, FILE *stream);"
This api may work better than fread() for you in this situation. It reads lines of data where lines are termintated with nl; plus its stops after eof is reached. Then insert each line inside the loop. popen() returns the data one line at time, just like a real console.

I would consider restructuring your prorgam. It may work the way it is but I would do it differently.

First I prefer to let gtk settle down and finish all its creation steps, like realizing windows, etc. I do this by creating the interface as normal, and saving the proccessing "popen() and reading" for later.

Next wrap the processing step into a g_timeout_add() function and after creating the last window and showing it - I call g_timeout_add(1sec, myfunc, userdata).

Let this "static gboolean myfunc (gpointer gp)' routine do the processing work - popen(), wile(read,insert) - and return FALSE; to stop the timer from calling the routine again.

For me this type of general approach assures me that the window is there , visible, and ready to do what I expect. However, most of your orignal issue is related to the buffering mechanism you ignored by using fread() vs fgets().

You could even go further to use threads instead of a g_timeout_add().

Hope this helps

GTK+ Forums

GtkTextView woes

Who is online