Flush stdin

[Marko Rauhamaa]

Dan Stromberg <drsalists at gmail.com>:

> ...then everything acts line buffered, or perhaps even character
> buffered [...]
>
> That, or we're using two different versions of netcat (there are at
> least two available).

Let's unconfuse the issue a bit. I'll take line buffering, netcat and
the OS out of the picture.

Here's a character generator (test.sh):
========================================================================
while : ; do
    echo -n x
    sleep 1
done
========================================================================

and here's a character sink (test.py):
========================================================================
import sys
while True:
    c = sys.stdin.read(1)
    if not c:
        break
    print(ord(c[0]))
========================================================================

Then, I run:
========================================================================
$ bash ./test.sh | python3 ./test.py
120
120
120
120
========================================================================

The lines are output at one-second intervals.

That demonstrates that sys.stdin.read(1) does not block for more than
one character. IOW, there is no buffering whatsoever.

If I change the sink a bit: "c = sys.stdin.read(5)", I get the same
output but at five-second intervals indicating that sys.stdin.read()
calls the underlying os.read() function five times before returning. In
fact, that conclusion is made explicit by running:

========================================================================
$ bash ./test.sh | strace python3 ./test.py
...
read(0, "x", 4096)                      = 1
read(0, "x", 4096)                      = 1
read(0, "x", 4096)                      = 1
read(0, "x", 4096)                      = 1
read(0, "x", 4096)                      = 1
fstat(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 3), ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f3143bab000
write(1, "120\n", 4120
)                    = 4
...
========================================================================

If I modify test.py to call os.read():
========================================================================
import os
while True:
    c = os.read(0, 5)
    if not c:
        break
    print(ord(c[0]))
========================================================================

The output is again printed at one-second intervals: no buffering.

Thus, we are back at my suggestion: use os.read() if you don't want
Python to buffer stdin for you.


Marko