Module fifo_file

Source
Expand description

Creation of FIFO files.

On Windows, named pipes can be compared to Unix domain sockets: they can have multiple duplex connections on a single path, and the data can be chosen to either preserve or erase the message boundaries, resulting in a reliable performant alternative to TCP and UDP working in the bounds of a single machine. Those Unix domain sockets are employed by interprocess for local sockets via an implementation provided by the standard library.

On Unix, named pipes, referred to as “FIFO files” in this crate, are just files which can have a sender and a receiver communicating with each other in one direction without message boundaries. If further receivers try to open the file, they will simply receive nothing at all; if further senders are connected, the data mixes in an unpredictable way, making it unusable. Therefore, FIFOs are to be used specifically to conveniently connect two applications through a known path which works like a pipe and nothing else.

§Usage

The create_fifo() function serves for a FIFO file creation. Opening FIFO files works via the standard Files, opened either only for sending or only for receiving. Deletion works the same way as with any regular file, via remove_file().

Functions§

create_fifo
Creates a FIFO file at the specified path with the specified permissions.