Creates an anonymous pipe and retrieves file descriptors for the read and write ends of the pipe.

Syntax

#include <prio.h>

PRStatus PR_CreatePipe(
  PRFileDesc **readPipe,
  PRFileDesc **writePipe);

Parameters

The function has the following parameters:

readPipe

A pointer to a PRFileDesc pointer. On return, this parameter contains the file descriptor for the read end of the pipe.

writePipe

A pointer to a PRFileDesc pointer. On return, this parameter contains the file descriptor for the write end of the pipe.

Returns

The function returns one of these values:

• If the pipe is successfully created, PR_SUCCESS.
• If the pipe is not successfully created, PR_FAILURE. The error code can be retrieved via PR_GetError.

Description

PR_CreatePipe creates an anonymous pipe. Data written into the write end of the pipe can be read from the read end of the pipe. Pipes are useful for interprocess communication between a parent and a child process. When the pipe is no longer needed, both ends should be closed with calls to PR_Close.

PR_CreatePipe is currently implemented on Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, and Win32 only.