How would I receive input from console without blocking? - java

Note: I understand that the console is for debugging and games should use GUI. This is for testing/experience
I'm writing a game that runs at 60fps. Every update, I check to see if the user has entered a String command. If so, it gets passed through, but if not, null is paas through, and the null is ignored.
Scanner is out of the question, since hasNext(), the method used to see if there is data to read, can potentially block and causes problems.
I've tried using BufferedReader.ready(). Not only did I have problems (never returned true), but I've read that it's not recommended for a few reasons.
BufferedReader.available() always returned 0, which in the documentation, it state's that InputStream.available() will always return 0 unless overriden. Here is my attempt:
class Game {
public static void main(String[] args) {
InputReader reader = new InputReader(System.in);
int timePerLoop = 1000/30;
Game game = new Game();
while(true) {
long start = System.nanoTime();
game.update(reader.next());
long end = System.nanoTime();
long sleepTime = timePerLoop + ((start - end) / 10000000);
if(sleepTime > 0)
try {
Thread.sleep(sleepTime);
}catch(InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
else
Thread.yield();
}
}
public void update(String command) {
if(commands != null) {
//handle command
}
//update game
}
}
InputReader.java
public class InputReader {
private InputStream in;
public InputReader(InputStream stream) {
in = stream;
}
public String next() {
String input = null;
try {
while(in.available > 0) {
if(input == null)
input = "";
input += (char) in.read();
}
}catch(IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return input;
}
}
InputStream by itself has the same problem as above. I'm not completely sure what type the object stored in System.in, but using available() yields the same results.
I've tried using the reader() from System.console(), but console() returns null. I've read into the subject, and I am not confused why. This is not the way to do it.
The goal is to check the stream to see if it contains data to read, so I can read the data knowing it won't block.
I do not want to use a separate Thread to handle user input, so please don't recommend or ask why.
The input has to be from the console. No new sockets are to be created in the process. I have read a few topics about it, but none of them clearly states a solution. Is this possible?

As you have said yourself, a custom GUI or an additional thread is the correct way to do this. However in absence of that, have you tried using readLine() for example: String inputR = System.console().readLine();
Some alterations to main():
Replace: InputReader reader = new InputReader(System.in); with:
Console c = System.console();
Replace: game.update(reader.next());
with: game.update(c.readLine());
Edit: This thread could also be helpful: Java: How to get input from System.console()

Related

Creating commands for a terminal app in Java

I'm new to programming, and I'm making an app that only runs in the command-line. I found that I could use a BufferedReader to read the inputs from the command-line.
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
String Input = "";
while (Input.equalsIgnoreCase("Stop") == false) {
Input = in.readLine();
//Here comes the tricky part
}
in.close();
What I'm trying to do now is to find a way to create different "commands" that you could use just by typing them in the command-line. But these commands might have to be used multiple times. Do I have to use some kind of Command design pattern with a huge switch statement (that doesn't seem right to me)? I'd like to avoid using an extra library.
Can someone with a bit more experience that me try to help me?
You could try something like this:
public static void main(String[] args) {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
String input = "";
try {
while (!input.equalsIgnoreCase("stop")) {
showMenu();
input = in.readLine();
if(input.equals("1")) {
//do something
}
else if(input.equals("2")) {
//do something else
}
else if(input.equals("3")) {
// do something else
}
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public static void showMenu() {
System.out.println("Enter 1, 2, 3, or \"stop\" to exit");
}
It is good practice to keep your variables lower cased.
I would also say that !Input.equalsIgnoreCase("stop") is much more readable than Input.equalsIgnoreCase("stop") == false although both are logically equivalent.
If it's just about reading the program parameters you can just add them behind the Java application call and access them through your args argument of your main method. And then you can loop through the array and search for the flags your program accepts.

Reading and Handling Streams

I want to read and handle a stream of String containing single OR multiple commands in one line.
I am currently using InputStream in = socket.getInputStream(); for my inputstream.
Also for handling the input a typical Thread:
public void run() {
String input = "";
try {
int data = 0;
while (!isInterrupted()) {
while ((data = in.read()) != -1 && !isInterrupted()) {
input += Integer.toHexString(data);
handleInput(input);
}
try {
sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
break;
}
}
socket.close();
return;
} catch (IOException e) {
main.log("Connection lost...");
main.log(e.toString());
main.stopBTCommunication();
main.startBTServer();
}
}
handleInput() is designed to handle any String given to it and response correctly. The problem with this implementation would be, that handleInput() is called with every byte read from in.read(). I know, that i could use BufferedReader.readLine(), but that would require every incomming command to have "\n" appended to it, which is NOT the case and can't be changed.
I know that
while (!isInterrupted()) {
while ((data = in.read()) != -1 && !isInterrupted()) {
is kind of nuisance, but basically it want the Thread to read until nothing new is read, then handle that input and then read again...
EDIT:
So basically, what i need is a non-blocking read().
EDIT2:
How can incoming commands and commandchains look like:
Select Command: "s"
ReadLine Command: "rlXX" whereby X is a Hex Digit
WriteLine Command: "wlXXSSSSSSSS" whereby X and S are Hex Digits
So a commandschain may look like one of the following:
"s"
"srlff" = "s" + "rlff"
"rlffwlbb2e2e2e2erlbb" = "s" + "rlff" + "wlbb2e2e2e2e" + "rlbb"
I don't think you really need a non-blocking read. You need a method that reads the stream byte by byte and translates it into commands as it goes.
Something like:
public void processStream(InputStream in) {
List<Command> commands = new ArrayList<Command>();
while((int c = in.getChar()) != -1 ) {
switch((char)c) {
case 's':
commands.add(new SelectCommand());
break;
case 'r':
commands.add(ReadCommand.buildFromStream(in));
break;
case 'w':
commands.add(WriteCommand.buildFromStream(in));
break;
case ';':
commandEngine.execute(commands);
break;
default:
throw new StreamParseError("unexpected character: " + c);
}
}
}
This assumes that SelectCommand, ReadCommand, WriteCommand are type-compatible with Command.
... with for example ReadCommand.buildFromStream being:
public static ReadCommand buildFromStream(InputStream in) {
if((char)in.read() != 'n') {
throw new StreamParseError("Expect 'l' after 'r'");
}
// bad error checking here - be less lazy in real life.
String hexNum = in.read() + in.read();
int num = Integer.parseInt(hexNum,16);
return new ReadCommand(num);
}
This is very primitive parsing, but it shows the principle. There are well established techniques for more advanced parsing, which you can read up on if you want to.
You could also use a Scanner. Most commonly, Scanner is used with delimiters, but it can also look for regex patterns.
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(stream);
String cmd = "";
while(cmd != "e") { // I made up an "end" command :)
cmd = scanner.findWithinHorizon("(s|rl..|wl.{8}|e)",12);
if(cmd == null) {
// end of input, or badly formed input
break;
}
handleCmd(cmd);
}
You can read in array of bytes like this
int bytesRead = 0;
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024]; // reads up to 1024 byte chunks
while((bytesRead = in.read(buffer)) != -1) {
for ( int i = 0; i < bytesRead; i++ ) {
input += Integer.toHexString(buffer[i]);
}
handleInput(input);
}
The above code calls is the same as your old code that "input" keeps growing and used over and over again to call handleInput(). No sure if this is your intention but it looks suspicious.
Note that you are reading data from a stream. This means that you will have to implement recovery of the commands' structure yourself, i.e. you must at least detect the beginning and end of a command in your own code.
This again leads to another problem: You have no guarantee about how your stream's data is split into "chunks" by the transport layer. You may receive one command plus half a command in one read(buffer) call and then the second half of the command plus some more data in the next read(buffer).
Therefore, what I recommend is that you keep reading data only until you detect the end of one message/command/whatever and then perform handling for only this single message, before reading more incoming data and repeating. Everything else (i.e. dealing with partially received messages) easily becomes messy.
EDIT - With this particular input/output, since you don't have a delimiter, Scanner may not be the way to go here, but if you've got a delimiter between commands, it would be a great option, so I'll keep the answer here in the hopes it might help someone in the future.
Since your example doesn't have a delimiter, I have to get a little bit hack-y to demonstrate scanner's awesomeness, but it should still work for the exact commands you've listed. It would not be a good choice if you expect the command vocabulary to change.
I'd really recommend the use of delimiters if at all possible. It makes life much easier.
I'd look at the Scanner class if I were you.
The Scanner can wrap your input stream, and then scan based on a regex or delimter to grab chunks of input. Then your handleInput() method can operate on chunks (whole commands) rather than individual bytes.
Here's a brief, standalone example:
package com.stackoverflow.q22199860;
import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
public class ReadStream
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Pattern commandPattern = Pattern.compile("s|rl|wl");
String commands = "srlffwlbb2e2e2e2erlbb";
Charset utf8 = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
try (
InputStream inputStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(commands.getBytes(utf8));
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(inputStream, utf8.name());
) {
scanner.useDelimiter(commandPattern);
while(scanner.hasNext()) {
String command = scanner.next();
if (command.isEmpty()){
//s
System.out.println("s" + command);
} else if (command.length() == 2) {
//rl
System.out.println("rl" + command);
} else if (command.length() == 10) {
//wl
System.out.println("wl" + command);
}
}
}
catch (IOException e)
{
System.err.println("Error Reading Stream");
}
}
}
The output from this is:
s
rlff
wlbb2e2e2e2e
rlbb

Strange behavior of EOFException

I have some simple class that is DataInputStream stream to read from file.
I have surrounded this stream with EOFException try-catch block.
It has some strange behavior coz sometimes it throws EOFException into text that is read.
Output to console:
"The vessel was in as good condition as I am, and as, I hope
you ar#End of streame#, M. Morrel, and this day and a half was lost from
pure whim, for the pleasure of going ashore, and nothing
else."
I couldn't figure out what is cause of this strange behavior...
Here is code snippet:
public class FormattedMemoryInput {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
boolean done = false;
try (DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(new ByteArrayInputStream(
BufferedInputFile.read("./gutenberg/cristo.txt").getBytes()));) {
while (!done) {
System.out.print((char) in.readByte());
}
} catch (EOFException e) {
System.err.println("#End of stream#");
}
}
}
It uses static method BufferedInputFile.read() to read first 500 lines:
public class BufferedInputFile {
// Throw exceptions to console:
public static String read(String filename) throws IOException {
// Reading input by lines:
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename));
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String s;
int i = 0;
while ((s = in.readLine()) != null && (i < 500)) {
sb.append(s + "\n");
i++;
}
in.close();
return sb.toString();
}
Why EOFException is thrown into text?
Solution:
It was at adding one line:
while (!done) {
System.out.print((char) in.readByte());
System.out.flush(); // this one
}
Well, you're getting an EOFException because you're reading forever - you never change the value of done.
The reason it's appearing in the middle of the text instead of at the end is that you're using System.err to print in the exceptional case, and System.out to print the main text. Those are separate streams, flushed separately. If you flush System.out before writing to System.err, I suspect you'll see the main text before the error message. (Note that you're using println on System.err, which will flush automatically, but just print on System.out, which won't.)
There are various other things I'd change about the code - particularly the use of String.getBytes() without specifying an encoding - but assuming I've understood your question correctly, the difference in streams is the reason you're looking for.
System.out is buffered by default; System.err isn't. If you redirect one of the output streams, either in your program or from the shell, you should see the output in the expected order. You can force System.out to print its output by calling System.out.flush();; try inserting that at the end of your while loop.

A usable solution for console output capturing - java

I am making a program that will have the ability to run the java compiler and jvm right from within it (Don't ask me why I am reinventing the wheel, if your reply does not help, save it, I am already quite frustrated spending hours on solutions that do not work!). So far I have managed it to track whenever I input something in my textField that starts with java so that it will actually wrap up the text and give it a run like so:
if(String.valueOf(object).startsWith("java")){
try{
Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process process = runtime.exec(String.valueOf(object));
}
catch(Exception e){gsc.mainWindow.printf("error");}
Consider gsc.mainWindow.printf(...); my output to a JTextArea within a JFrame.
What I have managed now is to run the commands, but anything fails I shall be able to print it directly to my output. I know this has been answered a ton of times before, read about 10 ways to do this, but none of them worked or was understandable to the point that I could run it. I need the code to be simple enough as this will have to be outputting what the proccess will be writing in the default system's Console (cmd,terminal) and then stop (I thought that this can be a method call alltogether). I am quite bad with this kind of stuff, even a multithread solution could fit my needs, nothing too professional really, I just need it to work. Any information you need, ask away!
Thanks in advance! :)
I don't know you if you want to read this, but you know, in the Java world, you should always look for a solution before implementing your own. And the solution for common problems, most of the time, comes from Apache Commons or other Apache projects. Saying that everything but your solution doesn't work or is too complicated to you will only cost you time and money (and your job, eventually).
Apache Commons Exec is what you need to solve your problem faster and easier.
---- Edit ----
Here is some code of how to capture the output of the child process. There's a class just for it, the PumpStreamHandler:
DefaultExecutor exec = new DefaultExecutor();
PumpStreamHandler streamHandler = new PumpStreamHandler();
exec.setStreamHandler(streamHandler);
CommandLine commandline = CommandLine.parse(command); //where command is your command line
exec.execute(commandline);
---- Edit 2 ----
Here is the copy-paste solution you want to capture the message using an OutputStream:
public abstract class LogOutputStream extends OutputStream {
protected static final String LINE_SEPERATOR = System.getProperty("line.separator");
public static final int DEFAULT_BUFFER_LENGTH = 2048;
protected boolean hasBeenClosed = false;
protected byte[] buf;
protected int count;
private int bufLength;
public LogOutputStream() {
bufLength = DEFAULT_BUFFER_LENGTH;
buf = new byte[DEFAULT_BUFFER_LENGTH];
count = 0;
}
public void close() {
flush();
hasBeenClosed = true;
}
public void write(final int b) throws IOException {
if (hasBeenClosed) {
throw new IOException("The stream has been closed.");
}
if (b == 0) {
return;
}
if (count == bufLength) {
final int newBufLength = bufLength + DEFAULT_BUFFER_LENGTH;
final byte[] newBuf = new byte[newBufLength];
System.arraycopy(buf, 0, newBuf, 0, bufLength);
buf = newBuf;
bufLength = newBufLength;
}
buf[count] = (byte) b;
count++;
}
public void flush() {
if (count == 0) {
return;
}
if (count == LINE_SEPERATOR.length()) {
if (((char) buf[0]) == LINE_SEPERATOR.charAt(0)
&& ((count == 1) ||
((count == 2) && ((char) buf[1]) == LINE_SEPERATOR.charAt(1)))) {
reset();
return;
}
}
final byte[] theBytes = new byte[count];
System.arraycopy(buf, 0, theBytes, 0, count);
log(new String(theBytes));
reset();
}
private void reset() {
count = 0;
}
public abstract void log(String message);
}
Then just create a subclass of it, implement the public void log(String message) with the code that updates the UI, and it's done.

Java: Pause thread and get position in file

I'm writing an application in Java with multithreading which I want to pause and resume.
The thread is reading a file line by line while finding matching lines to a pattern. It has to continue on the place I paused the thread. To read the file I use a BufferedReader in combination with an InputStreamReader and FileInputStream.
fip = new FileInputStream(new File(*file*));
fileBuffer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fip));
I use this FileInputStream because I need the filepointer for the position in the file.
When processing the lines it writes the matching lines to a MySQL database. To use a MySQL-connection between the threads I use a ConnectionPool to make sure just one thread is using one connection.
The problem is when I pause the threads and resume them, a few matching lines just disappear. I also tried to subtract the buffersize from the offset but it still has the same problem.
What is a decent way to solve this problem or what am I doing wrong?
Some more details:
The loop
// Regex engine
RunAutomaton ra = new RunAutomaton(this.conf.getAuto(), true);
lw = new LogWriter();
while((line=fileBuffer.readLine()) != null) {
if(line.length()>0) {
if(ra.run(line)) {
// Write to LogWriter
lw.write(line, this.file.getName());
lw.execute();
}
}
}
// Loop when paused.
while(pause) { }
}
Calculating place in file
// Get the position in the file
public long getFilePosition() throws IOException {
long position = fip.getChannel().position() - bufferSize + fileBuffer.getNextChar();
return position;
}
Putting it into the database
// Get the connector
ConnectionPoolManager cpl = ConnectionPoolManager.getManager();
Connector con = null;
while(con == null)
con = cpl.getConnectionFromPool();
// Insert the query
con.executeUpdate(this.sql.toString());
cpl.returnConnectionToPool(con);
Here's an example of what I believe you're looking for. You didn't show much of your implementation so it's hard to debug what might be causing gaps for you. Note that the position of the FileInputStream is going to be a multiple of 8192 because the BufferedReader is using a buffer of that size. If you want to use multiple threads to read the same file you might find this answer helpful.
public class ReaderThread extends Thread {
private final FileInputStream fip;
private final BufferedReader fileBuffer;
private volatile boolean paused;
public ReaderThread(File file) throws FileNotFoundException {
fip = new FileInputStream(file);
fileBuffer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fip));
}
public void setPaused(boolean paused) {
this.paused = paused;
}
public long getFilePos() throws IOException {
return fip.getChannel().position();
}
public void run() {
try {
String line;
while ((line = fileBuffer.readLine()) != null) {
// process your line here
System.out.println(line);
while (paused) {
sleep(10);
}
}
} catch (IOException e) {
// handle I/O errors
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// handle interrupt
}
}
}
I think the root of the problem is that you shouldn't be subtracting bufferSize. Rather you should be subtracting the number of unread characters in the buffer. And I don't think there's a way to get this.
The easiest solution I can think of is to create a custom subclass of FilterReader that keeps track of the number of characters read. Then stack the streams as follows:
FileReader
< BufferedReader
< custom filter reader
< BufferedReader(sz == 1)
The final BufferedReader is there so that you can use readLine ... but you need to set the buffer size to 1 so that the character count from your filter matches the position that the application has reached.
Alternatively, you could implement your own readLine() method in the custom filter reader.
After a few days searching I found out that indeed subtracting the buffersize and adding the position in the buffer wasn't the right way to do it. The position was never right and I was always missing some lines.
When searching a new way to do my job I didn't count the number of characters because it are just too many characters to count which will decrease my performance a lot. But I've found something else. Software engineer Mark S. Kolich created a class JumpToLine which uses the Apache IO library to jump to a given line. It can also provide the last line it has readed so this is really what I need.
There are some examples on his homepage for those interested.

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