gistfile1.m

-(NSString*)execTask:(NSString*)launch args:(NSArray*)args
{   
    
    if ([[NSFileManager defaultManager] isExecutableFileAtPath:launch] != YES){
        [bottomLeftLabel setStringValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ not found",launch]];
        return nil;
    }    
    
  NSPipe *stdout_pipe = [[NSPipe alloc] init];
    if (stdout_pipe == nil) {
        NSLog(@"ERROR ran out of file descriptors at %@ %@",launch,[args lastObject]);
        return nil;
    }        
    
	NSTask *task = [[NSTask alloc] init];
	[task setLaunchPath:launch];
	[task setArguments:args];
	[task setStandardOutput:stdout_pipe];
    [task setStandardError:[task standardOutput]];    
    
    NSFileHandle *stdout_file = [stdout_pipe fileHandleForReading];
    NSMutableString *output = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:1];     
	
    NSTimer *timeoutTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:60 target:task selector:@selector(terminate) userInfo:nil repeats:NO];    
	[task launch];
    
    NSData *inData = nil;   
    while ( (inData = [stdout_file availableData]) && [inData length] ) {
        NSString *str = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:inData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
        if (str) {
            [output appendString:str];
            [str release];      
            if ([output length] > 8000000) {
                NSLog(@"%@ data exceeds maximum, terminating, remaining output skipped",launch);            
                [output appendString:@"\n**Data exceeds maximum, remaining output skipped"];
                [task terminate];
                break;            
            }            
        }
    }  
    
	[task waitUntilExit];
    [timeoutTimer invalidate];
      
    [stdout_file closeFile]; //unless we do this pipes are never released even if documentation says different
    [stdout_pipe release]; //the object is actually overretained and never released
    [task release];         
    return output;    
}