Redirect binary output from file output to stdout

Question

I have a proprietary binary which stubbornly accepts two files as argument, first as input and second as output. I would like to

build the first argument w/o creating a temporary file
make binary write to stdout instead of a output file (second argument)

I solved the first issue with <(...) but not sure about the second argument.

I wrote a following script which looks like does everything as expected:

FILE1=$1
FILE2=$2

# checking that the files exist and other stuff

mkfifo myfifo

ThatBinary <( ... ) myfifo &

cat myfifo

The first argument for the binary is a combined Bash command which builds the first ``file''. The second argument is the named pipe to which the binary must write. All this is sent to background since writing to fifo blocks. Finally I print the named pipe's output to the stdout, as desired.

Is it possible to improve this command? Any hidden caveats? I am working with very large files (hundreds of thousands of text lines) and would love to be sure I miss nothing.

John Kugelman · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-09 19:43:26Z

3

ThatBinary <(...) /dev/stdout

answered Dec 9, 2014 at 19:43

John Kugelman

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Vladislavs Dovgalecs Over a year ago

Strangely enough, I can't redirect stdout of the script to a file. The error message read ``IOError: [Errno 20] Not a directory: '/dev/stdout' ''

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