Names Pipe Example

The presented pair of programs implements a chat-based client/server application that demonstrates the use of named pipes.

pipe-chat-server.c

Create a file named ./pipe-chat-fifo. Open ./pipe-chat-fifo for writing, exit in case of error. Start a loop that runs until we receive "q" from the keyboard. Read a character (key) and write it to the file. If key is Enter, use flush. Close and delete the file.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<sys/types.h>
#include<sys/stat.h>

#define FIFO_FILE "./pipe-chat-fifo"

int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
  mkfifo(FIFO_FILE, 0600);
  FILE* f = fopen(FIFO_FILE, "w");
  if(f == NULL)
  {
    printf("Error open file!\n");
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }

  char key;
  do
  {
    key = getchar();
    fputc(key, f);
    if(key == 10) fflush(f);
  }
  while(key != 'q');

  fclose(f);
  unlink(FIFO_FILE);
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

pipe-chat-client.c

Open a file named ./pipe-chat-fifo for reading. Start a loop that runs until we receive "q" from the keyboard. Read a character (key). Output the received character to the console. Close and delete the file.

#include<stdlib.h>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h>

#define FIFO_FILE "./pipe-chat-fifo"

int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
  FILE* f = fopen(FIFO_FILE, "r");
  if(f == NULL)
  {
    printf("Error open file!\n");
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }

  char key;
  do
  {
    key = fgetc(f);
    putchar(key);
  }
  while(key != 'q');

  fclose(f);
  unlink(FIFO_FILE);
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}