Windows System Programming Third Edition

NAMED PIPES

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Named Pipes

Named pipes have several features that mak e them an appropriate general-

purpose mechanism for implementing IPC-based applications, including net-

worked fi le access and client/server systems,

2

although anonymous pipes remain a

good choice for simple byte-stream IPC, such as the preceding exa mple, where

communication is within a single system. Named pipe features (some are optional)

include the following.

•Named pipes are message-oriented, so the reading process can read varying-

length messages precisely a

s sent by the writi ng process.

•Named pipes are bidirectional, so two processes can exchange messages over

the same p ...