Manual Pages for UNIX Operating System command usage for man pipe

System Calls                                              pipe(2)



NAME
     pipe - create an interprocess channel

SYNOPSIS
     #include 

     int pipe(int fildes[2]);


DESCRIPTION
     The pipe() function creates an I/O mechanism called  a  pipe
     and  returns  two file descriptors, fildes[0] and fildes[1].
     The  files  associated  with  fildes[0]  and  fildes[1]  are
     streams  and  are  both opened for reading and writing.  The
     O_NDELAY, O_NONBLOCK, and FD_CLOEXEC flags  are  cleared  on
     both  file descriptors. The fcntl(2) function can be used to
     set these flags.


     A read from fildes[0] accesses the data written to fildes[1]
     on  a  first-in-first-out  (FIFO)  basis  and  a  read  from
     fildes[1] accesses the data written to fildes[0] also  on  a
     FIFO basis.


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

RETURN VALUES
     Upon successful completion, 0 is returned. Otherwise, -1  is
     returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
     The pipe() function will fail if:

     EMFILE    More than {OPEN_MAX} file descriptors are  already
               in use by this process.


     ENFILE    The number of simultaneously  open  files  in  the
               system would exceed a system-imposed limit.


ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:









SunOS 5.11          Last change: 23 Apr 2002                    1






System Calls                                              pipe(2)



     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Interface Stability         | Committed                   |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | MT-Level                    | Async-Signal-Safe           |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Standard                    | See standards(5).           |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|


SEE ALSO
     sh(1), fcntl(2), fstat(2),  getmsg(2),  poll(2),  putmsg(2),
     read(2), write(2), attributes(5), standards(5), streamio(7I)

NOTES
     Since a pipe is bi-directional, there are two separate flows
     of data. Therefore, the size (st_size) returned by a call to
     fstat(2) with argument  fildes[0] or fildes[1] is the number
     of  bytes  available for reading from fildes[0] or fildes[1]
     respectively. Previously, the size (st_size) returned  by  a
     call  to fstat() with argument fildes[1] (the write-end) was
     the number of bytes available  for  reading  from  fildes[0]
     (the read-end).































SunOS 5.11          Last change: 23 Apr 2002                    2