Redirecting cout to a console in windows

Updated Feb 2018:

Here is the latest version of a function which fixes this problem:

void BindCrtHandlesToStdHandles(bool bindStdIn, bool bindStdOut, bool bindStdErr)
{
    // Re-initialize the C runtime "FILE" handles with clean handles bound to "nul". We do this because it has been
    // observed that the file number of our standard handle file objects can be assigned internally to a value of -2
    // when not bound to a valid target, which represents some kind of unknown internal invalid state. In this state our
    // call to "_dup2" fails, as it specifically tests to ensure that the target file number isn't equal to this value
    // before allowing the operation to continue. We can resolve this issue by first "re-opening" the target files to
    // use the "nul" device, which will place them into a valid state, after which we can redirect them to our target
    // using the "_dup2" function.
    if (bindStdIn)
    {
        FILE* dummyFile;
        freopen_s(&dummyFile, "nul", "r", stdin);
    }
    if (bindStdOut)
    {
        FILE* dummyFile;
        freopen_s(&dummyFile, "nul", "w", stdout);
    }
    if (bindStdErr)
    {
        FILE* dummyFile;
        freopen_s(&dummyFile, "nul", "w", stderr);
    }

    // Redirect unbuffered stdin from the current standard input handle
    if (bindStdIn)
    {
        HANDLE stdHandle = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
        if(stdHandle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
        {
            int fileDescriptor = _open_osfhandle((intptr_t)stdHandle, _O_TEXT);
            if(fileDescriptor != -1)
            {
                FILE* file = _fdopen(fileDescriptor, "r");
                if(file != NULL)
                {
                    int dup2Result = _dup2(_fileno(file), _fileno(stdin));
                    if (dup2Result == 0)
                    {
                        setvbuf(stdin, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    // Redirect unbuffered stdout to the current standard output handle
    if (bindStdOut)
    {
        HANDLE stdHandle = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
        if(stdHandle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
        {
            int fileDescriptor = _open_osfhandle((intptr_t)stdHandle, _O_TEXT);
            if(fileDescriptor != -1)
            {
                FILE* file = _fdopen(fileDescriptor, "w");
                if(file != NULL)
                {
                    int dup2Result = _dup2(_fileno(file), _fileno(stdout));
                    if (dup2Result == 0)
                    {
                        setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    // Redirect unbuffered stderr to the current standard error handle
    if (bindStdErr)
    {
        HANDLE stdHandle = GetStdHandle(STD_ERROR_HANDLE);
        if(stdHandle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
        {
            int fileDescriptor = _open_osfhandle((intptr_t)stdHandle, _O_TEXT);
            if(fileDescriptor != -1)
            {
                FILE* file = _fdopen(fileDescriptor, "w");
                if(file != NULL)
                {
                    int dup2Result = _dup2(_fileno(file), _fileno(stderr));
                    if (dup2Result == 0)
                    {
                        setvbuf(stderr, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    // Clear the error state for each of the C++ standard stream objects. We need to do this, as attempts to access the
    // standard streams before they refer to a valid target will cause the iostream objects to enter an error state. In
    // versions of Visual Studio after 2005, this seems to always occur during startup regardless of whether anything
    // has been read from or written to the targets or not.
    if (bindStdIn)
    {
        std::wcin.clear();
        std::cin.clear();
    }
    if (bindStdOut)
    {
        std::wcout.clear();
        std::cout.clear();
    }
    if (bindStdErr)
    {
        std::wcerr.clear();
        std::cerr.clear();
    }
}

In order to define this function, you’ll need the following set of includes:

#include <windows.h>
#include <io.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <iostream>

In a nutshell, this function synchronizes the C/C++ runtime standard input/output/error handles with the current standard handles associated with the Win32 process. As mentioned in the documentation, AllocConsole changes these process handles for us, so all that’s required is to call this function after AllocConsole to update the runtime handles, otherwise we’ll be left with the handles that were latched when the runtime was initialized. Basic usage is as follows:

// Allocate a console window for this process
AllocConsole();

// Update the C/C++ runtime standard input, output, and error targets to use the console window
BindCrtHandlesToStdHandles(true, true, true);

This function has gone through several revisions, so check the edits to this answer if you’re interested in historical information or alternatives. The current answer is the best solution to this problem however, giving the most flexibility and working on any Visual Studio version.