tdxsys@dartvax.UUCP (TDX sys Mark Mullen) (07/13/84)
I have just switched from V7 to SYSTEM III, and am very curious about
using the async pipes that you can create via mknod. Anyone who has any info
that they can share involving this would be a freingdiend for life!!!
<<< ASK NOT FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS AND YOU WILL ONLY PAY STATION TO STAIOTION
TRATES
>>>gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) (07/17/84)
I assume you are referring to FIFOs. Think of these as "named pipes". The only use I have figured out for FIFOs is for some resource server (e.g. line printer spooler) which would loop reading from its publicly- known FIFO awaiting request packets; a request would be accomplished simply by opening the FIFO under its public name and writing a request packet to the server.
toby@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Toby Harness) (07/18/84)
You can also think of FIFOs as a poor-man`s IPC (Inter-Process Communication). That is, if you have two (or more!) processes that you would like to have talk to one another and yet are not parent-child related, FIFOs are an easy way (the only way in sys iii?) to go. If necessay, you can synchronize the processes that are to talk and listen via signals, say SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2. Toby Harness Ogburn/Stouffer Center, University of Chicago ...ihnp4!gargoyle!toby