Shell Scripting: Expert Recipes for Linux, Bash, and More

mkfifo

A First-In First-Out (FIFO) file is known as a named pipe. Like regular pipes, which are used to tie together the input and output of otherwise independent commands, FIFOs manage the input and output between processes. However, any process at all may (if filesystem permissions permit) read and write to and from this pipe. This allows multiple processes to communicate with one another without even knowing who is receiving the data they send, or sending the data they are receiving. The mkfifo command sets up a FIFO, optionally setting permissions at the same time.

Master and Minions

This inter-process communication provides a very useful multitasking ability in a really easy-to-use-and-understand manner. This master script occasionally emits commands; one of its many minions picks it up and works on it. That work could take some time to complete (these clients have lots of sleep statements to make sure that it does!), but the master can dispatch the work to the queue and return to its loop. However, when all of its minions (or clients) are busy, its echo to the FIFO does not return until there is a client to pick it up, so the master then gets blocked. In Figure 14-3, when the first client (center left) picks up the “quit” command, it exits; when the remaining client exits in response to the second “quit” command, there are no more processes listening to the pipe, so the master does not get to display its prompt again until a client arrives to execute its previous command. ...