Implementation of ls | wc command
Last Updated :
30 Apr, 2018
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ls | wc command : Using ls|wc, we can count new lines, words and letters of all files of current directory. We can see from the following after execution of the code we get same results.
Prerequisites :ls command | wc command | piping in linux
Approach : First, we have to use pipe for inter process communication over an array where a[0] is used for reading and a[1] is used for writing. We can replicate the process using fork. In the parent process, standard output is closed so that output of ls command will go to a[0] and similarly standard input is closed in children process. Now, if we run the program output will be as same as command of linux ls|wc.
Below is the implementation of above approach :
C
// C code to implement ls | wc command
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include<errno.h>
#include<sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main(){
// array of 2 size a[0] is for
// reading and a[1] is for
// writing over a pipe
int a[2];
// using pipe for inter
// process communication
pipe(a);
if(!fork())
{
// closing normal stdout
close(1);
// making stdout same as a[1]
dup(a[1]);
// closing reading part of pipe
// we don't need of it at this time
close(a[0]);
// executing ls
execlp("ls","ls",NULL);
}
else
{
// closing normal stdin
close(0);
// making stdin same as a[0]
dup(a[0]);
// closing writing part in parent,
// we don't need of it at this time
close(a[1]);
// executing wc
execlp("wc","wc",NULL);
}
}
