Communication between processes is valuable in a multitasking operating system to enable concurrent processes to work together. Pipes are one of three forms of interprocess communication (IPC), the other forms of IPC being semaphores and queues.
This chapter describes how to create, manage, and use pipes. Pipes enable two or more processes to communicate as if they were reading from and writing to a file.
The following topics are related to the information in this chapter:
- Memory (shared memory)
- Program execution and control
- Semaphores
- Queues
About Pipes
Unnamed Pipes
Named Pipes
Server-Client Communications Using Named Pipes
Steps in Managing Server-Client Transactions
Preparing a Named Pipe for a Client
Facilitating Transaction Processing
Coordinating Access to a Local Named Pipe with Semaphores
Using Unnamed Pipes
Creating Unnamed Pipes
Reading from and Writing to Unnamed Pipes
Redirecting Standard I/O for Child Processes
Using Named Pipes
Creating Named Pipes
Opening Named Pipes
Reading from Named Pipes
Writing to Named Pipes
Synchronizing Named Pipe Dialogs
Determining Pipe Status
Examining the Contents of Named Pipes
Closing Named Pipes