childprocess-server

require 'childprocess-server'
server = ChildProcess::Server.new

# Run a process
pid = server.launch('sleep', '1000')
server.alive?(pid) # => true
server.stop(pid)
server.alive?(pid) # => false

# Run 'echo', get output
pid = server.launch('echo', 'hello')
server.read_output(pid) # => "hello\n"
server.alive?(pid) # => false

# Run 'cat', write stdin interactively
pid = server.launch('cat')
server.write_input(pid, "foo\n")
server.read_output(pid) # => "foo\n"
server.write_input(pid, "bar\n")
server.read_output(pid) # => "foo\nbar\n"
server.stop(pid)

# List all process ids managed
# Note: exited processes are also listed.
server.list_pids # => [ ... ]

# Clean up
server.clean_up
server.list_pids # => []

DRB_URI = 'drbunix://tmp/a.socket'

# Server side
ChildProcess::Server.new.start_service(DRB_URI) # will block by default

# Client side
server = ChildProcess::Server.connect(DRB_URI)
pid = server.launch('sort', '-n')
server.write_input(pid, "20\n10\n2\n1\n")
server.read_output(pid) # => "1\n2\n10\n20\n"