Ever heard of Unix Pipes? They’re among the OGs of Inter-Process Communication (IPC) on Unix systems. But let’s break things down a bit.
π πͺππππππ
π©πππππ
πππ:Β Ever tried the command Β ππ | ππ -π? Wonder what’s happening?
The shell gets to work, initiating two processes: Β ππ lists files, and ππ counts them.
Our buddies ππππ() and ππππ() make this magic happen.
π The Real MVP – Pipes: They’re the unsung heroes ensuring data flows seamlessly between processes.
π²ππ π°πππππππ ππ π·ππππ:
π¨βπ©βπ§βπ¦ Family Affairs: Pipes are like family messengers, primarily connecting parent and child processes. And guess who can join the party? Yep, grandparents and even great-grandparents, as long as there’s a shared ancestor who began the conversation.
π΅ Stream Like Spotify: Pipes work like your music streaming. It’s a continuous flow, no skips, no jumps. Pure, uninterrupted data stream.
π« One-Way Traffic: Imagine a one-lane road. That’s how pipes function. They have a one-way data flow. And oh, there’s a capacity cap (often around 65,536 bytes, a typical limit on most of the systems). When it’s jam-packed, someone’s gotta wait!
πΈππππ π―πππ
π-πΆπ:
– Ring up pipe() and voila! You get two numbers: ππππππ
[π]Β for reading and ππππππ
[π] for writing.
– Jot down a message and instantly, it’s available for any reader out there.
– Wanna share notes between two pals (processes)? Dial ππππ(), followed by ππππ(). The kiddo (child process) inherits the same numbers.
– Pro Tip: Keep it neat. Parents should stick to sending (close the reading), and kids? They’re all ears (close the writing).
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An Article by: Yashwanth Naidu Tikkisetty
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