Passing file descriptors via SWIG

GNU Radio
1

Hi,

following
Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] buffering in gr_file,
I tried connecting two processes with a FIFO using gr.file_descriptor_*.

However, I can’t seem to pass the file descriptor from the Python to the
C++ domain. This is the error message I get:

gr_file_descriptor_sink: Bad file descriptor

This is the code (pipe1 was created by using ‘mkfifo pipe1’):

Source-File:

<<< SNIP >>>
from gnuradio import gr
class sig_source(gr.top_block):
def init(self):
gr.top_block.init(self)

    src = gr.sig_source_f(8000, gr.GR_SIN_WAVE, 2000, 1.0)
    head = gr.head(gr.sizeof_float, 8000)

    print "Opening pipe..."
    fid = open('pipe1', 'wb')
    print "Done. fileno: ", fid.fileno()
    sink = gr.file_descriptor_sink(gr.sizeof_float, fid.fileno())

    self.connect(src, head, sink)

if name == ‘main’:
try:
sig_source().run()
except KeyboardInterrupt:
pass
<<< SNIP >>>

Sink:
<<< SNIP >>>
from gnuradio import gr
class sig_sink(gr.top_block):
def init(self):
gr.top_block.init(self)

    print "Opening pipe..."
    fid = open('pipe1', 'rb')
    print "Done. fileno: ", fid.fileno()
    src = gr.file_descriptor_source(gr.sizeof_float, fid.fileno())
    self.sink = gr.vector_sink_f()

    self.connect(src, self.sink)

if name == ‘main’:
try:
sigsnk = sig_sink()
sigsnk.run()
print sigsnk.sink.data()[0:4]
except KeyboardInterrupt:
pass
<<< SNIP >>>

When I start both scripts, this is what I get:

Opening pipe…
Done. fileno: 3
file_descriptor_source[read]: Bad file descriptor

on both the write and read ends of the pipe. This does work when I open
the pipe with gr_file_sink, but then I have to think about the
buffering.

Has anyone ever done this and could drop me some example code that
works? I’d really appreciate it…

Cheers
MB

2

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 01:49:31PM +0100, Martin B. wrote:

This is the code (pipe1 was created by using ‘mkfifo pipe1’):

The python file object, fid, is going out of scope, and thus the
underlying file is being closed. Try self.fid = open(…)

Eric

3

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 07:09:26AM -0700, Eric B. wrote:

gr_file_descriptor_sink: Bad file descriptor

This is the code (pipe1 was created by using ‘mkfifo pipe1’):

The python file object, fid, is going out of scope, and thus the
underlying file is being closed. Try self.fid = open(…)

Thanks, Eric, that helped.
If anyone ever tries doing this: Both Python and gr_file_descriptor_sink
will try to close the file, resulting in a warning. If you ask me,
gr_file_descriptor_* should not close the file in the destructors - if
anyone’s using these blocks, they should usually know what they’re
doing. Plus, to use a gr_file_descriptor, you need to open the file
yourself beforehand, the closing should thus happen in the same scope. I
suggest kicking the close() lines from
gr_file_descriptor*::~gr_file_descriptor*.

Just my two Euro-cents…
MB