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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | VERSIONS | CONFORMING TO | EXAMPLE | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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PIPE(2) Linux Programmer's Manual PIPE(2)
pipe, pipe2 - create pipe
#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);
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
values can be bitwise ORed in flags to obtain different behavior:
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.
O_DIRECT (since Linux 3.4)
Create a pipe that performs I/O in "packet" mode. Each
write(2) to the pipe is dealt with as a separate packet, and
read(2)s from the pipe will read one packet at a time. Note
the following points:
* Writes of greater than PIPE_BUF bytes (see pipe(7)) will be
split into multiple packets. The constant PIPE_BUF is
defined in <limits.h>.
* If a read(2) specifies a buffer size that is smaller than
the next packet, then the requested number of bytes are
read, and the excess bytes in the packet are discarded.
Specifying a buffer size of PIPE_BUF will be sufficient to
read the largest possible packets (see the previous point).
* Zero-length packets are not supported. (A read(2) that
specifies a buffer size of zero is a no-op, and returns 0.)
Older kernels that do not support this flag will indicate this
via an EINVAL error.
Since Linux 4.5, it is possible to change the O_DIRECT setting
of a pipe file descriptor using fcntl(2).
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.
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
set appropriately.
On Linux (and other systems), pipe() does not modify pipefd on
failure. A requirement standardizing this behavior was added in
POSIX.1-2016. The Linux-specific pipe2() system call likewise does
not modify pipefd on failure.
EFAULT pipefd is not valid.
EINVAL (pipe2()) Invalid value in flags.
EMFILE The per-process limit on the number of open file descriptors
has been reached.
ENFILE The system-wide limit on the total number of open files has
been reached.
ENFILE The user hard limit on memory that can be allocated for pipes
has been reached and the caller is not privileged; see
pipe(7).
pipe2() was added to Linux in version 2.6.27; glibc support is
available starting with version 2.9.
pipe(): POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.
pipe2() is Linux-specific.
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 file 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.
Program source
#include <sys/types.h>
#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);
}
}
fork(2), read(2), socketpair(2), splice(2), tee(2), vmsplice(2),
write(2), popen(3), pipe(7)
This page is part of release 4.15 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
latest version of this page, can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2017-11-26 PIPE(2)
Pages that refer to this page: eventfd(2), fork(2), getrlimit(2), socketpair(2), statfs(2), syscalls(2), pmda(3), pmdaconnect(3), __pmprocesspipe(3), popen(3), capabilities(7), fifo(7), inode(7), man-pages(7), pipe(7), signal-safety(7)
Copyright and license for this manual page
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