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From: gwyn%brl-vld@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re:  FIFOs - who uses them?
Message-ID: <2590@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 26-Jun-83 23:08:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.2590
Posted: Sun Jun 26 23:08:02 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Jun-83 20:06:10 EDT
Lines: 16

From:      Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) 

A FIFO is a "named pipe".  I.e., it acts like a pipe but can be opened
by its name in the file system rather than having to be passed as an
open fd created by a parent process.

The additional kernel code to support FIFOs was minimal, which may
have something to do with this facility being there; it integrates
nicely with the existing pipe and file facilities.

This idea was tried by RAND Corp. several years ago but wasn't
implemented as cleanly.

One could use a FIFO for any server daemon; the known file name would
serve as a port to send requests to.  Berkeley sockets could also be
used this way.