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PIPE(2)                    Linux Programmer's Manual                   PIPE(2)

NAME
       pipe, pipe2 - create pipe
SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>
       int pipe(int pipefd[2]);
       #define _GNU_SOURCE             /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
       #include <fcntl.h>              /* Obtain O_* constant definitions */
       #include <unistd.h>
       int pipe2(int pipefd[2], int flags);
DESCRIPTION
       pipe()  creates  a pipe, a unidirectional data channel that can be used
       for interprocess communication.  The array pipefd is used to return two
       file  descriptors  referring to the ends of the pipe.  pipefd[0] refers
       to the read end of the pipe.  pipefd[1] refers to the write end of  the
       pipe.   Data  written  to  the write end of the pipe is buffered by the
       kernel until it is read from the read end of  the  pipe.   For  further
       details, see pipe(7).
       If  flags is 0, then pipe2() is the same as pipe().  The following val-
       ues can be bitwise ORed in flags to obtain different behavior:
       O_NONBLOCK  Set the O_NONBLOCK file status flag on  the  two  new  open
                   file  descriptions.   Using  this flag saves extra calls to
                   fcntl(2) to achieve the same result.
       O_CLOEXEC   Set the close-on-exec (FD_CLOEXEC) flag on the two new file
                   descriptors.   See  the  description  of  the  same flag in
                   open(2) for reasons why this may be useful.
RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and  errno  is
       set appropriately.
ERRORS
       EFAULT pipefd is not valid.
       EINVAL (pipe2()) Invalid value in flags.
       EMFILE Too many file descriptors are in use by the process.
       ENFILE The  system  limit  on  the  total number of open files has been
              reached.
VERSIONS
       pipe2() was added to Linux in version 2.6.27; glibc support  is  avail-
       able starting with version 2.9.
CONFORMING TO
       pipe(): POSIX.1-2001.
       pipe2() is Linux-specific.
EXAMPLE
       The  following  program  creates  a pipe, and then fork(2)s to create a
       child process; the child inherits a duplicate set of  file  descriptors
       that  refer  to  the same pipe.  After the fork(2), each process closes
       the descriptors that it doesn't need for the pipe (see  pipe(7)).   The
       parent  then  writes the string contained in the program's command-line
       argument to the pipe, and the child reads this string a byte at a  time
       from the pipe and echoes it on standard output.
       #include <sys/wait.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <unistd.h>
       #include <string.h>
       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           int pipefd[2];
           pid_t cpid;
           char buf;
           if (argc != 2) {
            fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <string>\n", argv[0]);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }
           if (pipe(pipefd) == -1) {
               perror("pipe");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }
           cpid = fork();
           if (cpid == -1) {
               perror("fork");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }
           if (cpid == 0) {    /* Child reads from pipe */
               close(pipefd[1]);          /* Close unused write end */
               while (read(pipefd[0], &buf, 1) > 0)
                   write(STDOUT_FILENO, &buf, 1);
               write(STDOUT_FILENO, "\n", 1);
               close(pipefd[0]);
               _exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
           } else {            /* Parent writes argv[1] to pipe */
               close(pipefd[0]);          /* Close unused read end */
               write(pipefd[1], argv[1], strlen(argv[1]));
               close(pipefd[1]);          /* Reader will see EOF */
               wait(NULL);                /* Wait for child */
               exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
           }
       }
SEE ALSO
       fork(2), read(2), socketpair(2), write(2), popen(3), pipe(7)
COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2012-02-14                           PIPE(2)