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pipe

Syntax

#include <unistd.h>

int pipe(int fildes[2]);

Description

This function creates a pipe and places a file descriptor for the read end of the pipe in fildes[0], and another for the write end in fildes[1]. Data written to fildes[1] will be read from fildes[0] on a first-in first-out (FIFO) basis.

Note this pipe implementation won't help port instances of fork/exec or any other methods that require support for multitasking.

Return Value

Zero for success, otherwise -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

Portability

not ANSI, POSIX

Example


#include <unistd.h>
#include <process.h>

/* Pipe the output of program to the input of another. */

int main()
{
  int pipe_fds[2];
  int stdin_save, stdout_save;
  
  if (pipe(pipe_fds) < 0)
    return -1;

  /* Duplicate stdin and stdout so we can restore them later. */
  stdin_save = dup(STDIN_FILENO);
  stdout_save = dup(STDOUT_FILENO);

  /* Make the write end of the pipe stdout. */
  dup2(pipe_fds[1], STDOUT_FILENO);

  /* Run the program. Its output will be written to the pipe. */
  spawnl(P_WAIT, "/dev/env/DJDIR/bin/ls.exe", "ls.exe", NULL);

  /* Close the write end of the pipe. */
  close(pipe_fds[1]);

  /* Restore stdout. */
  dup2(stdout_save, STDOUT_FILENO);

  /* Make the read end of the pipe stdin. */
  dup2(pipe_fds[0], STDIN_FILENO);

  /* Run another program. Its input will come from the output of the
     first program. */
  spawnl(P_WAIT, "/dev/env/DJDIR/bin/less.exe", "less.exe", "-E", NULL);

  /* Close the read end of the pipe. */
  close(pipe_fds[0]);

  /* Restore stdin. */
  dup2(stdin_save, STDIN_FILENO);
  
  return 0;
}


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