Question

Here is an example to illustrate what I mean:

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

int main(void)
{
        int     fd[2], nbytes;
        pid_t   childpid;
        char    string[] = "Hello, world!\n";
        char    readbuffer[80];

        pipe(fd);

        if((childpid = fork()) == -1)
        {
                perror("fork");
                exit(1);
        }

        if(childpid == 0)
        {
                /* Child process closes up input side of pipe */
                close(fd[0]);

                /* Send "string" through the output side of pipe */
                write(fd[1], string, (strlen(string)+1));
            exit(0);
    }
    else
    {
            /* Parent process closes up output side of pipe */
            close(fd[1]);

            /* Read in a string from the pipe */
            nbytes = read(fd[0], readbuffer, sizeof(readbuffer));
            printf("Received string: %s", readbuffer);
    }

   return(0);

}

However, what if one of my processes needs to continuously write to the pipe while the other pipe needs to read?

The example above seems to work only for one write and one read.

Answer 1

Your pipe is a unidirectional stream – with a file descriptor for each end. It is not necessary to close() either end of the pipe to allow data to pass along it.

if your pipe spans processes (i.e. is created before a fork() and then the parent and child use it to communicate) you can have one write and and one read end. Then it is good practice to close the unwanted ends of the pipe. This will

• make sure that when the writing end closes the pipe it is seen by the read end. As an example, say the child is the write side, and it dies. If the parent write side has not been closed, then the parent will not get “eof” (zero length read()) from the pipe – because the pipe has a open write-end.
• make it clear which process is doing the writing and which process is doing the reading on the pipe.

if your pipe spans threads (within the same process), then do not close the unwanted ends of the pipe. This is because the file descriptor is held by the process, and closing it for one thread will close it for all threads, and therefore the pipe will become unusable.

There is nothing stopping you having one process writing continuously to the pipe and the other process reading. If this is a problem you are having then give us more details to help you out.