Put `stdout` in an `NSTextView` while running the a command

Question

I'm creating a Cocoa Application, which will need to run the rails command. This command generates an output, and streams it to stdout. I want to show this output to the user in an NSTextView (so basicly stream the stdout to the NSTextView). My application should not 'hang' when the command is running (e.g. the git command takes a long time to finish uploading). I don't really care about how I should run the command, as long as I can set the working directory.

Using a Ruby framework for Cocoa is no option, as I also need to do this for non-ruby commands like git.

Can anyone help me? Thanks

Answer 1

You will need to use the NSTask class.

NSTask       * task;
NSPipe       * pipe;
NSFileHandle * fileHandle;

task       = [ [ NSTask alloc ] init ];
pipe       = [ NSPipe pipe ];
fileHandle = [ pipe fileHandleForReading ];

[ fileHandle readInBackgroundAndNotify ];
[ task setLaunchPath: @"/bin/ls" ];
[ task setStandardOutput: pipe ];
[ task setStandardError: pipe ];
[ task launch ];

You can then use the file handle to get stdout.
The working directory can be set with the setCurrentDirectoryPath method.
Arguments can be set with the setArguments method.