Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!motown!vilya!lcuxlm!whuts!att!rutgers!gatech!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!killer!vector!rpp386!jfh
From: jfh@rpp386.UUCP (The Beach Bum)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: How can I read keyboard without stopping
Keywords: curses keyboard
Message-ID: <5558@rpp386.UUCP>
Date: 18 Aug 88 05:05:53 GMT
References: <813@ms3.UUCP> <1246@mcgill-vision.UUCP> <1988Aug15.130550.8571@ateng.uucp> <1267@ficc.UUCP>
Reply-To: jfh@rpp386.UUCP (The Beach Bum)
Organization: HASA, "S" Division
Lines: 19

In article <1267@ficc.UUCP> peter@ficc.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>I believe that once upon a time on some system a stat() on a pipe would
>return the number of characters in a pipe. Wouldn't it make sense to
>have stat() on a terminal device return the number of characters available?
>(and a stat() on /dev/mem return memory size, and...)

stat() is implemented by taking chunks of the inode table enty and stuffing
that into a "struct stat" thingy.  i believe the number of characters
queued in a pipe was a side effect (read `feature') of the implementation
of pipes, and probably not intentional.

one must remember that under system v, pipes are really just unnamed
files which never grow past a certain size, and who blocks get
juggled as they are written.
-- 
John F. Haugh II                 +--------- Cute Chocolate Quote ---------
HASA, "S" Division               | "USENET should not be confused with
UUCP:   killer!rpp386!jfh        |  something that matters, like CHOCOLATE"
DOMAIN: jfh@rpp386.uucp          |         -- apologizes to Dennis O'Connor