Issue 18868: Python3 unbuffered stdin (original) (raw)

I'm in need of an unbuffered stdin for Python3. Using the '-u' flag worked fine in Python2. But, it seems, Python3's stdin is always buffered; as seen in http://bugs.python.org/issue4705.

This is not always desirable. For example:

#!/bin/python3 import os, subprocess, time

with open("%s/unbuffered_test.log" % (os.getenv("HOME")), "w") as f: with subprocess.Popen(["%s/unbuffered_test.sh" % (os.getenv("HOME"))], stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=f, stderr=f) as p: p.stdin.write(bytes("test\n", encoding="utf-8")) time.sleep(10)

Where unbuffered_test.sh is: #!/bin/sh read INPUT echo $INPUT exit 0

Running with -u in Python2 sees the log file populated before the 10 seconds are up. This isn't the case in Python3. This making controlling applications, using subprocess, basically impossible; without putting p.stdin.flush() after each command (which does work in the example above).

I ran this example in Python3.3.2.

Indeed, this is not related to sys.stdin, but to Popen's own buffering, and the fix is either to pass "bufsize=0" or to flush() when you need to.

I'm closing as invalid, don't hesitate to re-open if I misunderstood something.