突然想给 locate 命令写个 wrapper，把输出中的家目录和一些因加密而引入的软链接显示为~。自然，这需要读取 locate 命令的输出。在 process 这个库中看到了readProcess函数，似乎是自己想要的（完整代码）：

readLocate :: [String] -> IO String
readLocate args = getArgs >>= \cmd ->
  let args' = args ++ cmd
  in readProcess "locate" args' ""

结果却发现，原本 locate 命令是边查找边输出的，现在变成了先静默，然后一下子全部吐出来。没有按 Haskell 惯常的「懒惰」脾气来。这样一来，当我发现输出项目太多想按Ctrl-C中断时已经晚了。

Google 了一下，找到这个：

I guess people who want laziness can implement it themselves directly, taking care to get whatever laziness it is that they want.

好吧。我先下回 process 库的源码看看readProcess为什么不是惰性的：

readProcess 
    :: FilePath                 -- ^ command to run
    -> [String]                 -- ^ any arguments
    -> String                   -- ^ standard input
    -> IO String                -- ^ stdout
readProcess cmd args input = do
    (Just inh, Just outh, _, pid) <-
        createProcess (proc cmd args){ std_in  = CreatePipe,
                                       std_out = CreatePipe,
                                       std_err = Inherit }

    -- fork off a thread to start consuming the output
    output  <- hGetContents outh
    outMVar <- newEmptyMVar
    _ <- forkIO $ C.evaluate (length output) >> putMVar outMVar ()

    -- now write and flush any input
    when (not (null input)) $ do hPutStr inh input; hFlush inh
    hClose inh -- done with stdin

    -- wait on the output
    takeMVar outMVar
    hClose outh

    -- wait on the process
    ex <- waitForProcess pid

    case ex of
     ExitSuccess   -> return output
     ExitFailure r -> 
      ioError (mkIOError OtherError ("readProcess: " ++ cmd ++ 
                                     ' ':unwords (map show args) ++ 
                                     " (exit " ++ show r ++ ")")
                                 Nothing Nothing)

原来是另开了一 IO 线程读输出，然后等待进程结束后关闭管道。这解释为什么它不是惰性的——它得进程善后处理。

那好吧，改用createProcess好了：

doLocate :: IO (String, ProcessHandle)
doLocate = do
  argv0 <- getProgName
  let args = case argv0 of
                  "lre" -> ["-b", "--regex"]
                  _ -> []
  args' <- getArgs
  let args'' = args ++ args'
  (_, Just out, _, p) <- createProcess (proc "locate" args''){ std_in = Inherit,
                                                               std_out = CreatePipe,
                                                               std_err = Inherit }
  hSetBuffering out LineBuffering
  (,) <$> hGetContents out <*> return p

改进后的程序，不会等待进程结束，而是返回输出和进程句柄。进程句柄用来等待子进程结束，同时获取退出状态。至于那个管道就不关闭了，留给操作系统解决好了。

main = do
  (out, p) <- doLocate
  putStr $ transform out
  waitForProcess p >>= exitWith

改进版的完整程序在此。