#147 \input| doesn't work correctly on Mac OS X

[Anonymous]

If I typeset the following noinput.tex test file with “xetex -shell-escape noinput”

---\input"|echo $(date)”\relax---

---\input"|echo $(date)”\relax---

\bye

the console output is

xetex -shell-escape noinput
This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.99998 (TeX Live 2017) (preloaded format=xetex)
\write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./noinput.tex (|echo $(date)---) (|echo $(date)---) [1] >

Note the missing newline. No PDF file is produced. If I call it as

xetex -shell-escape -no-pdf noinput && xdvipdfmx noinput

then a PDF file is produced, but only the first \input| command shows output. The
second one seems to just produce a \par. The console output, in this case, is

This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.99998 (TeX Live 2017) (preloaded format=xetex)
\write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./noinput.tex (|echo $(date)) (|echo $(date)) [1] )
Output written on noinput.xdv (1 page, 288 bytes).
Transcript written on noinput.log.
noinput -> noinput.pdf
[1]
3338 bytes written

The log file shows nothing suspicious.

Tested on Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.12 (Sierra), 10.13 (HighSierra). On other platforms the behavior is as expected.

[Anonymous]

Adding also the PDF

[Enrico Gregorio]

Sorry for the anonymous, I forgot to log in.

[Hironobu Yamashita]

Same on my Mac (OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan), x86_64-darwin self build (source from r46522).

I get a similar result from the following:

%#!xetex test.tex
---\immediate\openin10="|kpsewhich latex.ltx"\relax---
\closein10
\bye

When I comment out \closein10, the problem disappears. I guess something wrong is happening when closing the pipe, as xdvipdfmx gets XeTeX output through pipe if -no-pdf is not effective.

[Hironobu Yamashita]

The followings are tested on OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan:

By embedding some debug codes into pipe open/close procedure,

Index: web2c/lib/texmfmp.c
===================================================================
--- web2c/lib/texmfmp.c (revision 46524)
+++ web2c/lib/texmfmp.c (working copy)
@@ -2046,6 +2046,7 @@
       for (i=0; i<NUM_PIPES; i++) {
         if (pipes[i]==NULL) {
           pipes[i] = *f_ptr;

+          fprintf(stdout,"PIPE %d (openinorpipe): %s\n", i,((const_string)(nameoffile+1))+1);
           break;
         }
       }
@@ -2091,6 +2092,7 @@
       for (i=0; i<NUM_PIPES; i++) {
         if (pipes[i]==NULL) {
           pipes[i] = (*f)->f;
+          fprintf(stdout,"PIPE %d (uopeninorpipe): %s\n", i,((const_string)(nameoffile+1))+1);
           break;
         }
       }
@@ -2139,6 +2141,7 @@
       for (i=0; i<NUM_PIPES; i++) {
         if (pipes[i]==NULL) {
           pipes[i] = *f_ptr;
+          fprintf(stdout,"PIPE %d (uopenoutorpipe): %s\n", i,((const_string)(nameoffile+1))+1);
           break;
         }
       }
@@ -2164,6 +2167,7 @@
       if (pipes[i] == f) {
         if (f) {
           pclose (f);
+          fprintf(stdout,"PIPE %d (closefileorpipe): %s\n", i,((const_string)(nameoffile+1))+1);
 #ifdef WIN32
           Poptr = NULL;
 #endif
Index: web2c/xetexdir/XeTeX_ext.c
===================================================================
--- web2c/xetexdir/XeTeX_ext.c  (revision 46524)
+++ web2c/xetexdir/XeTeX_ext.c  (working copy)
@@ -2724,6 +2724,7 @@
         }
 #else
         *fptr = popen(cmd, "w");
+        fprintf(stdout,"PIPE DVI OUTPUT started.\n");
 #endif
         free(cmd);
         return (*fptr != 0);
@@ -2738,6 +2739,7 @@
             return errno;
     } else {
         return pclose(fptr);
+        fprintf(stdout,"PIPE DVI OUTPUT ended.\n");
     }
     return 0;
 }

By processing the following source (pipe0.tex),

---\immediate\openin10="|kpsewhich latex.ltx"\relax---
---\immediate\openin12="|kpsewhich latex.ltx"\relax---
\closein12
\closein10
---\immediate\openin14="|kpsewhich latex.ltx"\relax---
---\immediate\openin13="|kpsewhich latex.ltx"\relax---
\closein14
\closein13
\bye

XeTeX log output contains

PIPE 0 (uopeninorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 1 (uopeninorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 2 (uopeninorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 3 (uopeninorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
 [1PIPE DVI OUTPUT started.

The expected output can be obtained from pdfTeX, Aleph, pTeX etc:

PIPE 0 (openinorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 1 (openinorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 1 (closefileorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 0 (closefileorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 0 (openinorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 1 (openinorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 0 (closefileorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx
PIPE 1 (closefileorpipe): kpsewhich latex.ltx

So, it seems that XeTeX is failing to close the correct pipe. (Actually, the closing is done separately by uclose() defined in XeTeX_ext.c)

[Hironobu Yamashita]

I wrote a patch to fix this issue; working fine on my Mac.

[Jonathan Kew]

Thanks for looking into this! Patch applied.

[Jonathan Kew]

Fixed in 49e5f5ec9383e4cb2d54c64436974720c30d3d6d for version 0.99999.

[Hironobu Yamashita]

Thanks for checking; your commit acfb33ced483f900bc7986087eb8d416ed8812e2 is correctly installed (TeX Live svn r46526). Hope #145 fixed as well for TL18.