pipe(2)                                                   pipe(2)



     NAME
          pipe - create an interprocess channel

     SYNOPSIS
          int pipe(fildes)
          int fildes[2];

     DESCRIPTION
          pipe creates an I/O mechanism called a pipe and returns two
          file descriptors, fildes[0] and fildes[1].  fildes[0] is
          opened for reading and fildes[1] is opened for writing.

          Up to PIPE_MAX bytes of data are buffered by the pipe before
          the writing process is blocked.  A read only file descriptor
          fildes[0] accesses the data written to fildes[1] on a
          first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis.

     RETURN VALUE
          Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Oth-
          erwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indi-
          cate the error.

     ERRORS
          pipe will fail if one or more of the following is true.

          [EMFILE]    pipe will fail if the per-process open file lim-
                      it would be exceeded.

          [ENFILE]    The system file table is full.

     SEE ALSO
          read(2), write(2).























     April, 1990                                                     1