Mkfifo
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| − | The '''mkfifo''', or Make First-In First-Out, command creates a form of 'pipe' somewhere on the file system with special properties. This pipe can be thought of as a file the traditional, or physical, sense in that it can be written-to and read-from however it takes it one step further by allowing two separate process to have access to it; one process writes to it while another process reads from it and in the order entries were made. As such it is often referred to as 'half-duplex' because only one write or one read can happen at a time. This makes it a form of 'data buffer'. | + | The '''mkfifo''', or Make First-In First-Out, command creates a form of 'pipe' somewhere on the file system with special properties. This pipe can be thought of as a file in the traditional, or physical, sense in that it can be written-to and read-from however it takes it one step further by allowing two separate process to have access to it; one process writes to it while another process reads from it and in the order entries were made. As such it is often referred to as 'half-duplex' because only one write or one read can happen at a time. This makes it a form of 'data buffer'. |
In reality the 'fifo' pipe exists in memory. It is a form of virtual link, similar to file system entry created by the [[ln|link]] command. As such it is limited by available system memory. That said the pipe is persistent and will survive a reboot '''but the data within it will not''', the fifo entry remains in place until it is removed by issuing a [[rm|remove]] command. | In reality the 'fifo' pipe exists in memory. It is a form of virtual link, similar to file system entry created by the [[ln|link]] command. As such it is limited by available system memory. That said the pipe is persistent and will survive a reboot '''but the data within it will not''', the fifo entry remains in place until it is removed by issuing a [[rm|remove]] command. | ||
[[Category:System Commands]] | [[Category:System Commands]] | ||
Latest revision as of 07:21, 13 June 2008
The Mediawiki system (the 'software' that runs this site) capitalises all articles. Please note that commands on most UNIX and Unix-like systems are entered in lower case. As an example the article documenting the Ln command would be issued from the command line as 'ln'.
The mkfifo, or Make First-In First-Out, command creates a form of 'pipe' somewhere on the file system with special properties. This pipe can be thought of as a file in the traditional, or physical, sense in that it can be written-to and read-from however it takes it one step further by allowing two separate process to have access to it; one process writes to it while another process reads from it and in the order entries were made. As such it is often referred to as 'half-duplex' because only one write or one read can happen at a time. This makes it a form of 'data buffer'.
In reality the 'fifo' pipe exists in memory. It is a form of virtual link, similar to file system entry created by the link command. As such it is limited by available system memory. That said the pipe is persistent and will survive a reboot but the data within it will not, the fifo entry remains in place until it is removed by issuing a remove command.
