python os.mkfifo() for Windows

Question

Hello.

Short version (if you can answer the short version it does the job for me, the rest is mainly for the benefit of other people with a similar task):

In python in Windows, I want to create 2 file objects, attached to the same file (it doesn't have to be an actual file on the hard-drive), one for reading and one for writing, such that if the reading end tries to read it will never get EOF (it will just block until something is written). I think in linux os.mkfifo() would do the job, but in Windows it doesn't exist. What can be done? (I must use file-objects).

Some extra details: I have a python module (not written by me) that plays a certain game through stdin and stdout (using raw_input() and print). I also have a Windows executable playing the same game, through stdin and stdout as well. I want to make them play one against the other, and log all their communication.

Here's the code I can write (the get_fifo() function is not implemented, because that's what I don't know to do it Windows):

class Pusher(Thread):
        def __init__(self, source, dest, p1, name):
                Thread.__init__(self)
                self.source = source
                self.dest = dest
                self.name = name
                self.p1 = p1

        def run(self):
                while (self.p1.poll()==None) and\
                      (not self.source.closed) and (not self.source.closed):
                        line = self.source.readline()
                        logging.info('%s: %s' % (self.name, line[:-1]))
                        self.dest.write(line)
                        self.dest.flush()


exe_to_pythonmodule_reader, exe_to_pythonmodule_writer =\
                          get_fifo()
pythonmodule_to_exe_reader, pythonmodule_to_exe_writer =\
                          get_fifo()

p1 = subprocess.Popen(exe, shell=False, stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)

old_stdin = sys.stdin
old_stdout = sys.stdout

sys.stdin = exe_to_pythonmodule_reader
sys.stdout = pythonmodule_to_exe_writer

push1 = Pusher(p1.stdout, exe_to_pythonmodule_writer, p1, '1')
push2 = Pusher(pythonmodule_to_exe_reader, p1.stdin, p1, '2')

push1.start()
push2.start()
ret = pythonmodule.play()
sys.stdin = old_stdin
sys.stdout = old_stdout

Answer 1

On Windows, you are looking at (Named or Anonymous) Pipes.

A pipe is a section of shared memory that processes use for communication. The process that creates a pipe is the pipe server. A process that connects to a pipe is a pipe client. One process writes information to the pipe, then the other process reads the information from the pipe.

To work with Windows Pipes, you can use Python for Windows extensions (pywin32), or the Ctypes module. A special utility module, win32pipe, provides an interface to the win32 pipe API's. It includes implementations of the popen[234]() convenience functions.

See how-to-use-win32-apis-with-python and similar SO questions (not specific to Pipes, but points to useful info).

Answer 2

For a cross-platform solution, I'd recommend building the file-like object on top of a socket on localhost (127.0.0.1) -- that's what IDLE does by default to solve a problem that's quite similar to yours.

Answer 3

Following the two answers above, I accidentally bumped into the answer. os.pipe() does the job. Thank you for your answers.

I'm posting the complete code in case someone else is looking for this:

import subprocess
from threading import Thread
import time
import sys
import logging
import tempfile
import os

import game_playing_module

class Pusher(Thread):
    def __init__(self, source, dest, proc, name):
            Thread.__init__(self)
            self.source = source
            self.dest = dest
            self.name = name
            self.proc = proc

    def run(self):
            while (self.proc.poll()==None) and\
                  (not self.source.closed) and (not self.source.closed):
                    line = self.source.readline()
                    logging.info('%s: %s' % (self.name, line[:-1]))
                    self.dest.write(line)
                    self.dest.flush()

def get_reader_writer():
    fd_read, fd_write = os.pipe()
    return os.fdopen(fd_read, 'r'), os.fdopen(fd_write, 'w')

def connect(exe):
    logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG,\
                        format='%(message)s',\
                        filename=LOG_FILE_NAME,
                        filemode='w')

    program_to_grader_reader, program_to_grader_writer =\
                              get_reader_writer()

    grader_to_program_reader, grader_to_program_writer =\
                              get_reader_writer()

    p1 = subprocess.Popen(exe, shell=False, stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)        

    old_stdin = sys.stdin
    old_stdout = sys.stdout

    sys.stdin = program_to_grader_reader
    sys.stdout = grader_to_program_writer

    push1 = Pusher(p1.stdout, program_to_grader_writer, p1, '1')
    push2 = Pusher(grader_to_program_reader, p1.stdin, p1, '2')

    push1.start()
    push2.start()

    game_playing_module.play()

    sys.stdin = old_stdin
    sys.stdout = old_stdout

    fil = file(LOG_FILE, 'r')
    data = fil.read()
    fil.close()
    return data

if __name__=='__main__':
    if len(sys.argv) != 2:
        print 'Usage: connect.py exe'
        print sys.argv
        exit()
    print sys.argv
    print connect(sys.argv[1])