python stdout重定向,从python重定向stdout进行C调用

This is a follow up question from here specifically concerning its answer.

From a python module I am calling a Hello World executable that simply prints Hello World to the stdout. I am interested in redirecting that output to a python StringIO and ran into this answer which almost brings me all the way to the solution.

The critical part of this answer is this code segment:

1. def redirect_stdout():

2. print "Redirecting stdout"

3. sys.stdout.flush() #

4. newstdout = os.dup(1)

5. devnull = os.open('/dev/null', os.O_WRONLY)

6. os.dup2(devnull, 1)

7. os.close(devnull)

8. sys.stdout = os.fdopen(newstdout, 'w')

Also I would like to restore the stdout as it was before the redirection.

Questions

What exactly is going on in the function above?

What is dup and dup2 doing?

What is /dev/null?

What is line 8 doing? (sys.stdout = os.fdopen(newstdout, 'w'))

How can I store the stdout in a StringIO object?

How can I restore the stdout after the call to my Hello World program?

I am pretty sure that once I have the answer for my question 1 that the answers of questions 2 and 3 will be easy. I decided to post them anyway to maybe push the answer of question 1 into the direction where I want to go.

解决方案

I've written below a few additional comments that should make clearer what it's going on inside the redirect_stdout function:

def redirect_stdout():

print "Redirecting stdout"

sys.stdout.flush() #

# Duplicate stdout (file descriptor 1)

# to a different file descriptor number

newstdout = os.dup(1)

# /dev/null is used just to discard what is being printed

devnull = os.open('/dev/null', os.O_WRONLY)

# Duplicate the file descriptor for /dev/null

# and overwrite the value for stdout (file descriptor 1)

os.dup2(devnull, 1)

# Close devnull after duplication (no longer needed)

os.close(devnull)

# Use the original stdout to still be able

# to print to stdout within python

sys.stdout = os.fdopen(newstdout, 'w')

One important thing to note is that a process gets three different file descriptors from the OS when launched:

stdin: 0

stdout: 1

stderr: 2

As explained in the comments, the code above takes advantage of the file descriptor for stdout and the file descriptor duplication functions to make trick the C code into using a different stdout while still keeping a reference to the original stdout in the python code to be able to print.