NAME

pipe − create an interprocess channel

SYNOPSIS

int pipe (fildes)
int fildes[2];

HP-UX COMPATIBILITY

Level: HP-UX/RUN ONLY

Origin: System V

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.

Writes up to a system dependent maximum number bytes of data are buffered by the pipe before the writing process is blocked.  HP-UX guarantees a minimum value of 4096 for this number.  A read only file descriptor fildes[0] accesses the data written to fildes[1] on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis. 

­[EMFILE] Pipe will fail if NFILE - 1 or more file descriptors are currently open. 

­[ENFILE] The system file table is full. 

RETURN VALUE

Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise, a value of −1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. 

HARDWARE DEPENDENCIES

Integral PC:
Writes of up to 10240 bytes of data are buffred by the pipe before the writing process is blocked.

_NFILE is equal to 20. 

SEE ALSO

sh(1), read(2), write(2), popen(3S). 

Hewlett-Packard  —  last mod. May 11, 2021