| Re: How to obtain the process ID of the current IDL process in a platform-independent way? [message #67948] |
Thu, 03 September 2009 23:25 |
Michael Galloy
Messages: 1114
Registered: April 2006
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Senior Member |
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tcburt wrote:
> *** Question
> Is there a platform-independent "IDL way" to obtain the process ID of
> the current IDL process?
>
> *** Background
> I need the process ID (PID) of the current IDL process. Currently I
> have a working solution for a specific platform (Solaris 9 and 10),
> specifically
> IDLUnix> pid = CALL_EXTERNAL("/lib/sparcv9/libc.so", 'getpid')
> The reliance on a library from the operating system library limits the
> applicability to that particular platform and installation, so I
> consider it only a provisional solution.
>
> A recent discovery is the Unix libidl.so library that is in the IDL
> (v6.4 and v7.0) installation directory. Dumping the contents with
> shellUnix> elfdump -s libidl.so | less
> revealed the existence of a 'getpid' function that returns the PID via
> IDLUnix> pid = call_external(!dlm_path+'/libidl.so', 'getpid', /
> cdecl)
> This is one step towards platform independence since the library is
> from IDL rather than the operating system and its location is stored
> in an IDL system variable. I have not yet tested on anything but the
> Solaris 10 systems, so this may not work on other Unix systems
> (e.g. linux).
>
> I then turned to a Windows installation of IDL (v 6.2) and did not
> find a library called libidl.dll in the !dlm_path, but did find
> idl32.dll. I guessed[*] that this library would have 'getpid' as the
> entry symbol, so I tried
> IDLWindows> pid = call_external(!dlm_path+'\idl32.dll', 'getpid', /
> cdecl)
> The resulting error
> % CALL_EXTERNAL: Error loading sharable executable.
> indicates that the problems go deeper than just whether the symbol is
> in the library. Even if the call_external() had worked under Windows,
> the method could have potential problems with internal changes to IDL
> (e.g. library name change from idl32.dll to idl.dll).
>
>
>
> I seek the "IDL way" to obtain the PID. Searches in idlhelp,
> comp.lang.idl-pvwave, and Google have not revealed the way. It is a
> testament to the usefulness of this newsgroup over the past few years
> that other questions I had were already answered in the archives. I
> ask for your insight about the existence of robust solutions and
> pointers to more fruitful paths (such as writing specific external
> functions to determine the PID rather than using the libraries
> delivered with IDL).
>
> In appreciation for benefits already obtained,
> Tim
>
>
> [*] I guessed because I do not know how to dump the contents of a
> Windows DLL. Local gurus will likely be able to help me remove
> this layer of ignorance.
> [^] % CALL_EXTERNAL: Error loading sharable executable.
I don't know of an easy way of doing this. There is a C routine
IDL_GetUserInfo(IDL_USER_INFO *user_info) where *user_info has a field
pid. I have a simple DLM that does this, but you would have to build it
on all the platforms you need it on. I was going to make the project
this is part of available sooner or later; I can try to get it ready
earlier if that would be useful.
Mike
--
www.michaelgalloy.com
Associate Research Scientist
Tech-X Corporation
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