Ok i need some serious help here. I have to make a TCP Server Client. When the Client connects to server using a three stage handshake. AFterwards... while the Client is running in the terminal, the user enters linux shell commands like xinput list, ls -1, ect... something that uses standard output. The server accepts the commands and uses system() (in a fork() in an infinite loop) to run the commands and the standard output is redirected to the client, where the client prints out each line. Afterward the server sends a completion signal of "\377\n". In which the client goes back to the command prompt asking for a new command and closes its connection and exit()'s when inputting "quit". I know that you have to dup2() both the STDOUT_FILENO and STDERR_FILENO to the clients file descriptor {dup2(client_FD, STDOUT_FILENO). Everything works accept when it comes for the client to retrieve system()'s stdout and printing it out... all i get is a blank line with a blinking cursor (client waiting on stdin). I tried all kinds of different routes with no avail... If anyone can help out i would greatly appreciate it TCP SERVER CODE include #include <sys/socket.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <signal.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <errno.h> //Prototype void handle_client(int connect_fd); int main() { int server_sockfd, client_sockfd; socklen_t server_len, client_len; struct sockaddr_in server_address; struct sockaddr_in client_address; server_sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0); server_address.sin_family = AF_INET; server_address.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY); server_address.sin_port = htons(9734); server_len = sizeof(server_address); bind(server_sockfd, (struct sockaddr *)&server_address, server_len); /* Create a connection queue, ignore child exit details and wait for clients. */ listen(server_sockfd, 10); signal(SIGCHLD, SIG_IGN); while(1) { printf("server waiting\n"); client_len = sizeof(client_address); client_sockfd = accept(server_sockfd, (struct sockaddr *)&client_address, &client_len); if(fork() == 0) handle_client(client_sockfd); else close(client_sockfd); } } void handle_client(int connect_fd) { const char* remsh = "<remsh>\n"; const char* ready = "<ready>\n"; const char* ok = "<ok>\n"; const char* command = "<command>\n"; const char* complete = "<\377\n"; const char* shared_secret = "<shapoopi>\n"; static char server_msg[201]; static char client_msg[201]; static char commands[201]; int sys_return; //memset client_msg, server_msg, commands memset(&client_msg, 0, sizeof(client_msg)); memset(&server_msg, 0, sizeof(client_msg)); memset(&commands, 0, sizeof(commands)); //read remsh from client read(connect_fd, &client_msg, 200); //check remsh validity from client if(strcmp(client_msg, remsh) != 0) { errno++; perror("Error Establishing Handshake"); close(connect_fd); exit(1); } //memset client_msg memset(&client_msg, 0, sizeof(client_msg)); //write remsh to client write(connect_fd, remsh, strlen(remsh)); //read shared_secret from client read(connect_fd, &client_msg, 200); //check shared_secret validity from client if(strcmp(client_msg, shared_secret) != 0) { errno++; perror("Invalid Security Passphrase"); write(connect_fd, "no", 2); close(connect_fd); exit(1); } //memset client_msg memset(&client_msg, 0, sizeof(client_msg)); //write ok to client write(connect_fd, ok, strlen(ok)); // dup2 STDOUT_FILENO <= client fd, STDERR_FILENO <= client fd dup2(connect_fd, STDOUT_FILENO); dup2(connect_fd, STDERR_FILENO); //begin while... while read (client_msg) from server and >0 while(read(connect_fd, &client_msg, 200) > 0) { //check command validity from client if(strcmp(client_msg, command) != 0) { errno++; perror("Error, unable to retrieve data"); close(connect_fd); exit(1); } //memset client_msg memset(&client_msg, 0, sizeof(client_msg)); //write ready to client write(connect_fd, ready, strlen(ready)); //read commands from client read(connect_fd, &commands, 200); //run commands using system( ) sys_return = system(commands); //check success of system( ) if(sys_return < 0) { perror("Invalid Commands"); errno++; } //memset commands memset(commands, 0, sizeof(commands)); //write complete to client write(connect_fd, complete, sizeof(complete)); } } TCP CLIENT CODE #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <arpa/inet.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <errno.h> #include "readline.c" int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int sockfd; int len; struct sockaddr_in address; int result; const char* remsh = "<remsh>\n"; const char* ready = "<ready>\n"; const char* ok = "<ok>\n"; const char* command = "<command>\n"; const char* complete = "<\377\n"; const char* shared_secret = "<shapoopi>\n"; static char server_msg[201]; static char client_msg[201]; memset(&client_msg, 0, sizeof(client_msg)); memset(&server_msg, 0, sizeof(server_msg)); /* Create a socket for the client. */ sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0); /* Name the socket, as agreed with the server. */ memset(&address, 0, sizeof(address)); address.sin_family = AF_INET; address.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr(argv[1]); address.sin_port = htons(9734); len = sizeof(address); /* Now connect our socket to the server's socket. */ result = connect(sockfd, (struct sockaddr *)&address, len); if(result == -1) { perror("ACCESS DENIED"); exit(1); } //write remsh to server write(sockfd, remsh, strlen(remsh)); //read remsh from server read(sockfd, &server_msg, 200); //check remsh validity from server if(strcmp(server_msg, remsh) != 0) { errno++; perror("Error Establishing Initial Handshake"); close(sockfd); exit(1); } //memset server_msg memset(&server_msg, 0, sizeof(server_msg)); //write shared secret text to server write(sockfd, shared_secret, strlen(shared_secret)); //read ok from server read(sockfd, &server_msg, 200); //check ok velidity from server if(strcmp(server_msg, ok) != 0 ) { errno++; perror("Incorrect security phrase"); close(sockfd); exit(1); } //? dup2 STDIN_FILENO = server socket fd? //dup2(sockfd, STDIN_FILENO); //begin while(1)/////////////////////////////////////// while(1){ //memset both msg arrays memset(&client_msg, 0, sizeof(client_msg)); memset(&server_msg, 0, sizeof(server_msg)); //print Enter Command, scan input, fflush to stdout printf("<<Enter Command>> "); scanf("%s", client_msg); fflush(stdout); //check quit input, if true close and exit successfully if(strcmp(client_msg, "quit") == 0) { printf("Exiting\n"); close(sockfd); exit(EXIT_SUCCESS); } //write command to server write(sockfd, command, strlen(command)); //read ready from server read(sockfd, &server_msg, 200); //check ready validity from server if(strcmp(server_msg, ready) != 0) { errno++; perror("Failed Server Communications"); close(sockfd); exit(1); } //memset server_msg memset(&server_msg, 0, sizeof(server_msg)); //begin looping and retrieving from stdin, //break loop at EOF or complete while((read(sockfd, server_msg, 200) != 0) && (strcmp(server_msg, complete) != 0)) { //while((fgets(server_msg, 4096, stdin) != EOF) || (strcmp(server_msg, complete) == 0)) { printf("%s", server_msg); memset(&server_msg, 0, sizeof(server_msg)); } } }