Name of Project
nsIProcess2
Description
Replace the existing nsIProcess interface with new interface that:
- supports Unicode on all platforms
- supports piping to and from processes
- can handle asynchronous I/O via callbacks
- is available through Components.utils.import("resource://gre/process.js") or a similar JS module approach.
People
Leader
Contributors
Steve Lee
Mentors
Mark Finkle, Benjamin Smedberg, Ted Mielczarek, Jason Orendorff, David Humphrey
News and updates
Blog
A blog about the ongoing project to fix nsIProcess:
http://jamesboston.ca/cms/taxonomy/term/16
News and Progress
(Click dates for attachments or info)
Sept 21, 2008: A first draft (an alpha version really) of the API is posted.
Sept 22, 2008: Released an updated version of an extension that serves as a temporary work around for nsIProcess bugs.
Sept 25, 2008: Submitted patch to bugzilla.
Oct 3, 2008: Submitted revised patch to bugzilla.
Oct 12, 2008: Opened a bug on NSPR lack of unicode support for Unicode arguments.
Nov 11, 2008: Submitted a new patch to bugzilla with Unicode support for Windows.
Nov 23, 2008: Submitted a new patch to bugzilla with isRunning() method.
Jan 25, 2009: Submitted a new patch with unit tests.
Mar 5, 2009: Submitted a new patch with minor revisions. The bug has now also been marked blocking‑fennec.
Mar 9, 2009: Changed interface to return void on run.
Mar 12, 2009: Patch pushed to mozilla-central. (Followed by a minor bustage fix.)
Mar 19, 2009: Filed a new enhancement bug that ties together the various features in the next stage of development.
April 20, 2009: Projected accepted for Google Summer of Code.
April 26, 2009: Created mercurial repository to hold extension used to stage code.
May 8, 2009: Setup mercurial server to publish code. Mirrors mozilla-central.
Downloads
The code will be done in trunk. To get changeset:
hg pull http://hg.jamesboston.ca/mozilla/gsoc
Details
The API for nsIProcess is not fully implemented. At present, the PID of a created process is not retained and cannot be killed. The API would also benifit from a new spec that includes inter-process communication.
An example of an API that for creating processes and communicating with them through STDIN/STDOUT is the Python subprocess module: http://docs.python.org/lib/node528.html
The goal of this project is to create a similar API for Mozilla.
API proposal
https://wiki.mozilla.org/NsIProcess
Existing API
Code snippet of how to use the existing API
Existing Code
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/xpcom/threads/nsIProcess.idl
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/xpcom/threads/nsProcess.h
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/xpcom/threads/nsProcessCommon.cpp
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/xpcom/tests/unit/test_nsIProcess.js
Relevant bugs
Implement a replacement for nsIProcess
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=484246
nsIProcess.kill() does not work on Win32
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=442393
Implement inter-process communication (IPC) in Mozilla
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=68702
PR_CreateProcess in NSPR needs unicode support
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=459572
Submitted patches
Bug 442393 patches: Patches submitted to fix Bug 442393 - nsIProcess.kill() does not work on Win32
Meetings (Chronological)
Sept 19, 2008: Discussion with Benjamin Smedberg and David Humphrey to discuss the new API proposal.
Sept 22, 2008: Discussion with Mark Finkle and David Humphrey about the API design.
Sept 23, 2008: Discussion with Mark Finkle about using NSPR.
Oct 8, 2008: Discussion about string types and Windows paths in NSPR.
Oct 29, 2008: Advice regarding PRProcess type.
Nov 5, 2008: Getting advice on callbacks across XPConnect divide.
Nov 7, 2008: Round table on Unicode support.
Nov 23, 2008: Discussion about pathnames in xpcshell.