rexec

[barmar@Think.COM (Barry Margolin)]

   Date: 28 Feb 91 15:00:00 MST
   From: alames@sandia.gov (2814 AMES, ARLO L.)

   Opening a toy unix shell, as shown in the example, works quite well, sending
   the input to UNX, and getting back output as soon as it's generated.  My desired
   application, no matter how I try to execute it, doesn't return any output until
   it is exited.  I need the output to come back in a more interactive fashion.

   Any ideas?  Is my question clear?

The problem is probably that the application is buffering its output.  If
you have the source to the application you can modify it to flush its
output at appropriate times.  If not, you might be able to use the public
domain "pty" utility.  This runs a command with its standard I/O streams
connected to a pseudo terminal, which doesn't buffer output so much.  Pty
should be available in most public Unix source archives (e.g.
uunet.uu.net).