M_system module

OVERVIEW

As the C interface provided by the ISO_C_BINDING module has matured, it is becoming relatively easy to incorporate C-based libraries into Fortran programs. The following is a collection of interfaces to common C POSIX system functions. These have recently only been tested with GNU Fortran 7.4.0 but should be portable to other modern Fortran compilers.

Many were written early in the availability of the ISO_C_BINDING and could be simplified or improved upon (I used what worked at the time); please feel free to do so. This is intended to be a seed for others to build on.

There is a cursory example program included in the source for each of the procedures.

Using the GNU compiler as an example and the three following files a demonstration of the M_system(3f) module can be tested using

 gfortran -c M_system.f90
 gcc      -c C-M_system.c
 gfortran  -I. demo.f90 C-M_system.o M_system.o -o demo
 ./demo

This is a subset of the procedures available in the GPF (General Purpose Fortran) collection, which includes sample codes and man(1) pages for these routines and others.

NAME

M_system(3f) - Fortran interface to C system interface procedures (mostly POSIX)

SYNOPSIS

**Public objects:**

 use m_system, only : set_environment_variable, system_unsetenv, &
 system_putenv, system_getenv

 use m_system, only :  system_intenv, system_readenv, system_clearenv

 use M_system, only : system_getcwd, system_link,       &
 system_mkfifo, system_remove, system_rename,           &
 system_umask, system_unlink,                           &
 system_rmdir, system_chdir, system_mkdir,              &
 system_stat, system_isdir, system_islnk, system_isreg, &
 system_isblk, system_ischr, system_isfifo,             &
 system_realpath,                                       &
 system_access,                                         &
 system_utime,                                          &
 system_issock, system_perm

 use M_system, only : system_errno, system_perror

 use M_system, only : system_getegid, system_geteuid, system_getgid, &
 system_gethostname, system_getpid, system_getppid, system_getsid, &
 system_getuid, system_uname

 use M_system, only : system_kill

 use M_system, only : system_rand, system_srand

 use M_system, only : system_cpu_time

DESCRIPTION

M_system(3fm) is a collection of Fortran procedures that call C or a C wrapper using the ISO_C_BINDING interface to access system calls. System calls are a special set of functions used by programs to communicate directly with an operating system.

Generally, system calls are slower than normal function calls because when you make a call control is relinquished to the operating system to perform the system call. In addition, depending on the nature of the system call, your program may be blocked by the OS until the system call has finished, thus making the execution time of your program even longer.

ENVIRONMENT ACCESS

• system_putenv(3f): call putenv(3c)

• system_getenv(3f): function call to get_environment_variable(3f)

• system_unsetenv(3f): call unsetenv(3c) to remove variable from environment

• set_environment_variable(3f): set environment variable by calling setenv(3c)

• system_initenv(3f): initialize environment table for reading

• system_readenv(3f): read next entry from environment table

• system_clearenv(3f): emulate clearenv(3c) to clear environment

FILE SYSTEM

• system_chdir(3f): call chdir(3c) to change current directory of a process

• system_getcwd(3f): call getcwd(3c) to get pathname of current working directory

• system_stat(3f): determine system information of file by name

• system_perm(3f): create string representing file permission and type

• system_access(3f): determine filename access or existence

• system_isdir(3f): determine if filename is a directory

• system_islnk(3f): determine if filename is a link

• system_isreg(3f): determine if filename is a regular file

• system_isblk(3f): determine if filename is a block device

• system_ischr(3f): determine if filename is a character device

• system_isfifo(3f): determine if filename is a fifo - named pipe

• system_issock(3f): determine if filename is a socket

• system_realpath(3f): resolve a pathname

• system_chmod(3f): call chmod(3c) to set file permission mode

• system_chown(3f): call chown(3c) to set file owner

• system_getumask(3f): call umask(3c) to get process permission mask

• system_setumask(3f): call umask(3c) to set process permission mask

• system_mkdir(3f): call mkdir(3c) to create empty directory

• system_mkfifo(3f): call mkfifo(3c) to create a special FIFO file

• system_link(3f): call link(3c) to create a filename link

• system_rename(3f): call rename(3c) to change filename

• system_remove(3f): call remove(3c) to remove file

• system_rmdir(3f): call rmdir(3c) to remove empty directory

• system_unlink(3f): call unlink(3c) to remove a link to a file

• system_utime(3f): call utime(3c) to set file access and modification times

RANDOM NUMBERS

• system_srand(3f): call srand(3c)
• system_rand(3f): call rand(3c)

C ERROR INFORMATION

• system_errno(3f): return errno(3c)
• system_perror(3f): call perror(3c) to display last C error message

QUERIES

• system_geteuid(3f): call geteuid(3c)
• system_getuid(3f): call getuid(3c)
• system_getegid(3f): call getegid(3c)
• system_getgid(3f): call getgid(3c)
• system_getpid(3f): call getpid(3c)
• system_getppid(3f): call getppid(3c)
• system_gethostname(3f): get name of current host
• system_uname(3f): call my_uname(3c) which calls uname(3c)
• system_getlogin(3f): get login name
• system_getpwuid(3f): get login name associated with given UID
• system_getgrgid(3f): get group name associated with given GID
• system_cpu_time(3f) : get processor time in seconds using times(3c)

SEE ALSO

Some vendors provide their own way to access POSIX functions and make those available as modules; for instance …

• the IFPORT module of Intel
• or the f90_* modules of NAG.
• There are also other compiler-independent efforts to make the POSIX procedures accessible from Fortran…
  • Posix90 (doc),
  • flib.a platform/files and directories,
  • fortranposix.

SOURCE CODE

M_system at GitHub

• M_system.f90

(The code was very long and seemed to be causing the wiki software to hang, due to syntax highlighting I think so I replaced it with a link to the GitHub repository. —Jason Blevins)