8-bit DOS program

Nooooo!

DOS has finally died (MS claimed this in Windows 3.1, but it only died in x64).


I have an old program which worked from the days of 286-AT to Vista-32.
Unfortunately, it no longer works in Vista/Win7 x64.


Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
void main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
FILE * lf_outfile ;
int lc_buffer ; // don't remember why I used 16-bit INT?
if (argc < 2)
{
lf_outfile = fopen ("NUL", "a+t")
}
else
{
lf_outfile = fopen (argv[1], "a+t")
}
while ((lc_buffer = getchar()) != EOF)
{
fwrite (&lc_buffer, 1, 1, stdout) ;
fwrite (&lc_buffer, 1, 1, stderr) ;
fwrite (&lc_buffer, 1, 1, lf_outfile) ;
fflush (lf_outfile) ; // flush to force save
}
fcloseall () ;
}



In simple terms, read input character-by-character, output to file (optional), stdout & stderr.
[expanded from a 'Programming 101' assignment, but probably the most versatile/most-used program I ever wrote.]


e.g.
C:\> someprogram.exe | PIPE logfile.txt | clip.exe



You may want the output saved into a log file, and yet, still stream it into another program...
Think about it, some things can take a while when running, it can "hang" there for hours, or hit errors or a state you don't want.
Having the output simultaneously on stderr, you can see what is going on.
(and yes, I flush to make sure the output file is saved if I need to hit Ctrl-Break)



I am wondering if this can be easily converted to Powershell (or any other better way).
Unfortunately, being new to PS, and searching common/generic words like "powershell pipe" is as good Gopher.



ps, Virtual Machines, DOSbox, etc, won't cut it, 'cos it will be taking input from things running locally on the base machine (e.g., defrag.exe -v|PIPE|clip).

I'd look for a Windows port of the Linux tee command line program.

tee - Linux Command - Unix Command

Thanks for the heads-up.

Linux tee is close, but not quite (2-way split)...

e.g., program.exe|tee file.txt|clip.exe
would hang there until the whole operation is complete

The pipe splitting program also outputs to stderr, (3-way split) so
program.exe|pipe file.txt|clip.exe
would also show the output in 'real-time' to the 'dos' window...

If it's a command line text manipulation it's been done in Linux, believe me.. just look through the man pages. It's already been done probably in 1980.

Thanks...

BTW, 1980? it's a decade off - more like 1990... ;-)

I started programming in 1982, on an Apple ][ (48kB RAM) -- CALL -151
I wrote the program above probably 1990, first compiled on Borland C compiler for DOS6, then also ported to Linux 0.99.09 (80 floppy disks! downloaded 1 disk a day due to BBS download limits)

For some 20 lines lines of code, it worked, so I didn't bother to check if someone else wrote it, however, I cannot believe that nobody else ever needed that requirement either!

Again, the problem of searching for something too generic (no specific keywords), it is hard to find.

I'm talking about the Unix program that was stolen, er, ported to Linux. Most of that command line executable pipe tool stuff is reworked Unix tools. Also look at Perl, Awk and sed "one liners".

Try this page to start:
Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities

btw instead of looking for something else, why not just compile your program as 32 bit? Check out thefreecountry.com: Free Programmers' Resources, Free Webmasters' Resources, Free Security Resources for free Windows compilers. I'm sure you can get a freebie that does command line stuff.