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From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>)
Newsgroups: net.unix,net.unix-wizards,net.lang.c
Subject: Re: Async pipes under SYS3,SYS5
Message-ID: <3326@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 16-Jul-84 21:47:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.3326
Posted: Mon Jul 16 21:47:54 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Jul-84 04:24:43 EDT
References: <2201@dartvax.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 6

I assume you are referring to FIFOs.  Think of these as "named pipes".
The only use I have figured out for FIFOs is for some resource server
(e.g. line printer spooler) which would loop reading from its publicly-
known FIFO awaiting request packets; a request would be accomplished
simply by opening the FIFO under its public name and writing a request
packet to the server.