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From: avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au (avalon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: ls & file pipes (FIFO), curses...
Message-ID: <avalon.666979740@coombs>
Date: 19 Feb 91 16:09:00 GMT
Sender: news@newshost.anu.edu.au
Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University
Lines: 22

G'day, can anyone tell me how 'ls' knows whether a
file is a regular file or a pipe ?

When i do a stat(2) call on the file, it is returned
as a regular file.  What tricks does ls perform ?

Also, a question about curses, whenever I call one of
the input routines, say getstr(), wscanw(), etc,
the program hangs while reading data in read(2).
I have called initscr() and various other curses calls
BEFORE getting to these (successfully too :/ ).
The only thing the program responds to after this is
manual sending of signals to the process :-(.
Do i need to make any *other* calls to get these
to work or is it a deeper, more serious problem ?
My environ. is a pyramid 9825, OSx5.1, BSD universe.

thanks,
-avalon

p.s. sorry for the crosspost but the curses question/
problem is still unresolved after posting to c.u.q.