Child process accessing a file opened in Crystal

Help & Support
1

When I run the following code, the output is empty:

f = File.new("test.txt", "w")
f << "Hello world"
puts `cat test.txt`

However, if I add a rewind or close

f = File.new("test.txt", "w")
f << "Hello world"
f.rewind # or f.close
puts `cat test.txt`

It does print “Hello world”.

I don’t understand how the file descriptor from the Crystal code can affect a completely separate cat command that simply gets the file name as its argument. I assume it’s related to the fact that the created process is a child of the running crystal process, but I’m not sure exactly how.

2

File is buffered by default. If you don’t close the file the contents won’t be there. An alternative is to invoke f.flush or set f.sync = true which won’t make writes buffered anymore.

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