keithl@loop.UUCP (Keith Lofstrom) (08/24/89)
I would like an MSDOS utility that works like a unix pipe, effectively
loading multiple programs into ram and creating a RAM buffer between
them, like so:
pipe " foo | bar "
here, both programs are loaded into ram, and some sort of plausible
mechanism routes stdout from foo into stdin of fum, executing the programs
alternately as they read and write to a small in-ram buffer.
Why not use the DOS pipe?
1) If I am moving megabytes of data, the intermediate disk file DOS
creates (with it's simple-minded single-process architecture) is
too large.
2) I would like to see some output from "fum" before "foo" completes.
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Background:
I am in the process of building an "rsh" utility on top of the KA9Q ethernet
interface (it -sorta- works now) which allows me to pipe data from the PC to
programs on my unix machine, then pipe data back. I can use it now to move
files, print them, etc. I would LIKE to be able to back up my PC to the tape
drive on the unix machine, using John Gilmore's P.D. tar, and blow the
multi-megabyte tar output into the input of rsh. Of course, a copy of
the disk won't fit on the disk, so there isn't room for the intermediate
file that DOS creates when it sequentially executes the programs.
With a lot of extra work, I can bolt the two programs together, but I
would prefer a general solution rather than an ad hoc kludge.
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So, if anyone knows of a public domain or commercial program that does
this, I would appreciate hearing from you. If not, time to do some funky
programming - this may be impossible without severely mangling DOS.
--
Keith Lofstrom keithl@loop tektronix!psueea!qiclab!loop!keithl
Launch Loop, P.O. Box 1538, Portland, Oregon 97207 (503)-628-3645