Named Pipes

To create a named pipe, use the Unix command mknod(1) or on some systems, mkfifo(1). These may not be in your normal path.

    # system return val is backwards, so && not ||
    #
    $ENV{PATH} .= ":/etc:/usr/etc";
    if  (      system('mknod',  $path, 'p')
            && system('mkfifo', $path) )
    {
        die "mk{nod,fifo} $path failed;
    }

A fifo is convenient when you want to connect a process to an unrelated one. When you open a fifo, the program will block until there's something on the other end.

For example, let's say you'd like to have your .signature file be a named pipe that has a Perl program on the other end. Now every time any program (like a mailer, news reader, finger program, etc.) tries to read from that file, the reading program will block and your program will supply the new signature. We'll use the pipe-checking file test -p to find out whether anyone (or anything) has accidentally removed our fifo.

    chdir; # go home
    $FIFO = '.signature';
    $ENV{PATH} .= ":/etc:/usr/games";

    while (1) {
        unless (-p $FIFO) {
            unlink $FIFO;
            system('mknod', $FIFO, 'p')
                && die "can't mknod $FIFO: $!";
        }

        # next line blocks until there's a reader
        open (FIFO, "> $FIFO") || die "can't write $FIFO: $!";
        print FIFO "John Smith (smith\@host.org)\n", `fortune -s`;
        close FIFO;
        sleep 2;    # to avoid dup signals
    }