Here is another update of the library (again ZIP file updated at <http://www.highscore.de/boost/gsoc2010/process.zip>; again changes in Subversion at <http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/SOC/2010/process/>). What has been changed? * The library supports now configuring any streams (not only standard streams but whatever is supported on a platform). This is done through the new boost::process::context::streams array which replaces the stdin_behavior, stdout_behavior and stderr_behavior member variables. At the same time boost::process::child has been changed: This class doesn't provide the methods get_stdin(), get_stdout() and get_stderr() anymore but a single method called get_handle(). This new method expects a stream identifier as parameter and returns a boost::process::handle. It does not return a boost::process::istream or boost::process::ostream anymore as Boost.Process doesn't necessarily know if a stream is an input or output stream. This has the additional advantage though that those who like to use asynchronous I/O don't get a stream anymore (as they don't need one). Now you get a handle and decide yourself whether you want to initialize a stream (for synchronous I/O) or a pipe (for asynchronous I/O). * Stream behaviors don't expect a boolean anymore to differentiate between input and output streams. A new enumeration called boost::process::stream_type has been defined to improve readability. Furthermore stream behaviors like pipe or named_pipe provide a new constructor to explicitly specify whether a child's input or output stream should be configured. This is required on platforms which support configuring arbitrary many streams (which means POSIX :). * A bug was fixed in boost::process::detail::basic_status_service which caused problems when waiting asynchronously for child processes to terminate on POSIX platforms. Again I'd appreciate if you could comment on the changes. Especially have a look at: * boost::process::stream_type (in boost/process/stream_type.hpp) and boost::process::stream_id (in boost/process/stream_id.hpp). These types and files are new. * the new constructors in boost::process::behavior::pipe, boost::process::behavior::named_pipe and boost::process::behavior::null which expect a parameter of type boost::process::stream_type. They allow developers to explicitly specify whether an input or output stream is configured as the setting overrides the parameter passed to operator() (have a look eg. at the test case called "test_posix" in <http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/SOC/2010/process/libs/process/test/child.cpp> to see why this is required). * the class boost::process::context. There is no stdin_behavior, stdout_behavior and stderr_behavior anymore but a new array called streams. * the class boost::process::child. As boost::process::context was changed to support basically arbitrary many streams boost::process::child had to be updated to provide access to them. * the implementation of boost::process::create_child() (especially the POSIX code). As boost::process::context looks differently now boost::process::create_child() had to be updated. * the test cases in <http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/SOC/2010/process/libs/process/test/child.cpp> to see how boost::process::context and boost::process::child are used now. The POSIX test cases in this file also use the new streams array to configure streams with file descriptors greater than 2 (search for "test_posix"; this is now definitely easier than before as no user-defined context class is required anymore). What still has to be done? * boost::process::context class should provide a boost::function member variable to bind a callback function instead of requiring developers to define a subclass and override setup(). * The standard constructor of boost::process::context still tries to inherit standard streams (which is a problem for Windows GUI applications which don't have standard streams). * It might make sense to pass a string to boost::process::create_child() to specify command line options (instead of storing them one by one in a vector). * It might be possible to somehow pass options to CreateProcess() on Windows (which is used by boost::process::create_child()). * Examples and documentation must be updated. Boris