Content-type: text/html Man page of pipe

pipe

Section: System Calls (2)
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NAME

pipe - Creates an interprocess channel  

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int pipe (        int filedes[2] );
 

STANDARDS

Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows:

pipe(): XPG4, XPG4-UNIX

Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags.  

PARAMETERS

Specifies the address of an array of two integers into which the new file descriptors are placed.  

DESCRIPTION

The pipe() function creates a unidirectional interprocess channel called a pipe, and returns two file descriptors, filedes[0] and filedes[1]. The file descriptor specified by the filedes[0] parameter is opened for reading and the file descriptor specified by the filedes[1] parameter is opened for writing. Their integer values will be the two lowest available at the time of the call to the pipe() function.

A process has the pipe open for reading if it has a file descriptor open that refers to the read end, filedes[0]. A process has the pipe open for writing if it has a file descriptor open that refers to the write end, filedes[1]. A read on file descriptor filedes[0] accesses the data written to filedes[1] on a first-in, first-out (FIFO) basis.

System V Compatibility

The pipe() function creates an interprocess channel called a pipe and returns two file descriptors, filedes[0] and filedes[1]. Both file descriptors are STREAMS based and are bidirectional. Data written on filedes[0] appears on filedes[1] and vice versa. Data is read in a first-in, first-out (FIFO) basis.

Under both behaviors, the O_NONBLOCK and the FD_CLOEXC flags are set clear on both file descriptors. (The fcntl() function can be used to set the O_NONBLOCK flag.)

Upon successful completion, the pipe() function marks the st_atime, st_ctime and st_mtime fields of the pipe for update.  

NOTES

When a read or write system call on a pipe is interrupted by a signal and no bytes have been transferred through the pipe, the read or write system call returns a -1 and errno is set to [EINTR]. This behavior is different from previous releases, when both system calls either restarted the transfer or caused errno to be set to [EINTR], depending on the setting of the SA_RESTART flag for the interrupting signal.

As a result of this change, applications must now either handle the [EINTR] return or block any expected signals for the duration of the read or write operation.

[Digital]  When compiled in the X/Open UNIX environment, calls to the pipe() function are internally renamed by prepending _E to the function name. When you are debugging a module that includes the pipe() function and for which _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED has been defined, use _Epipe to refer to the pipe() call. See standards(5) for further information.  

RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, a value of 0 (zero) is returned. If the pipe() function fails, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.  

ERRORS

If the pipe() function fails, errno may be set to one of the following values: The filedes parameter is an invalid address. A read() or a write() on a pipe is interrupted by a signal and no bytes have been transferred through the pipe. More than OPEN_MAX-2 file descriptors are already opened by this process.

[Digital] More than getdtablesize(2) file descriptors are already opened by this process. The system file table is full, or the device containing pipes has no free i-nodes. [Digital] The system was unable to allocate kernel memory for more file descriptors.
 

RELATED INFORMATION

Commands: sh(1)

Functions: fcntl(2), getmsg(2), poll(2), putmsg(2), read(2), select(2), write(2), getdtablesize(2)

Standards: standards(5) delim off


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
STANDARDS
PARAMETERS
DESCRIPTION
NOTES
RETURN VALUES
ERRORS
RELATED INFORMATION

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 02:40:15 GMT, October 02, 2010