Open3 outputting to std error only and not asynchronously - perl

Question

I am relatively new to perl programming and I am trying to figure out how open3 works. Here is the code.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use IPC::Open3;
my $dir = "/home/vman/Documents/Dev/perl_scripts/Provenance/temp";
my $fileHandle;
my $bashPid;
print "Starting main program\n";
my $pid = fork();
if($pid)#Parent process2
{
print("Start transfer.\n");
$bashPid = $pid;
#Attaching an strace to the executed command which happens in the child process
open3(\*WRITE, \*READ,\*ERROR,"strace", "-f", "-F", "-e", "trace=open,execve","-p", $bashPid, "-s", "2097152","-q");
while(<READ>)
{
print("Here1\n");
print("$_");
}
while(<ERROR>)
{
print("$_");
}
print("Finish transfer.\n");
}
elsif($pid == 0)
{
if (scalar(#ARGV == 0))
{
exit
}
my $args = join(' ', #ARGV);
exec($args);
}
else
{
die("Could not fork.");
}
close(READ);
close(WRITE);
close(ERROR);
waitpid($bashPid, 0);
print "End of main program\n";
I want to run an strace on a bash process, then capture all the output while it is being outputted. Then I will take that output and parse it to see what files are being changed by which process and I will save those changes in a mysql database. For now all I am trying to do is attach an strace onto an existing bash process and get the output of that strace printed within the bash terminal that is running just to make sure that it is asynchronously reading the output.
One of the problems is that I am getting the output through the ERROR filehandle. I am a little confused on to why this is happening. Am I using the correct order for open3 and if there is an error why is the correct output even making it to stderr?
The second problem I have is that I am getting the output only when exec ends which is no good since it needs to be done while exec is running. I thought open3 runs asynchronously.
As per suggested this is what I did and it works perfectly.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use IPC::Run3;
my $bashPid;
print "Starting main program\n";
my $pid = fork();
if($pid)#Parent process
{
print("Start transfer.\n");
$bashPid = $pid;
#Attaching an strace to the executed command which happens in the child process
my $command = "strace -fFe trace=open,execve -p $bashPid -s 2097152 -q";
run3($command, \*STDIN, \*STDOUT, \*STDERR);
if ($?)
{
die "something went horribly wrong";
}
while(<STDERR>)
{
print($_);
}
print("Finish transfer.\n");
}
elsif($pid == 0)#cild process
{
if (scalar(#ARGV == 0))
{
exit
}
my $args = join(' ', #ARGV);
exec($args);
}
else
{
die("Could not fork.");
}
close(STDIN);
close(STDOUT);
close(STDERR);
waitpid($bashPid, 0);
print "End of main program\n";

Answer 1

One of the problems is that I am getting the output through the ERROR filehandle
Correct. strace writes to STDERR.
The second problem I have is that I am getting the output only when exec ends which is no good since it needs to be done while exec is running. I thought open3 runs asynchronously.
That's because you only start reading from the child's STDERR after the child closes its STDOUT when it ends.
In fact, you're lucky you haven't deadlocked yet. By reading one at a time as you are currently, doing, you'll deadlock when strace has output enough to fill the pipe.
You need to read from both the child's STDOUT and STDERR as it comes in. You could do this using with the help of select, polling non-blocking handle or threads. None of those options are as simple as ditching open3 and using a higher-level module that handles this for you. The simpler IPC::Run3 and the fully featured IPC::Run are good choices.