Important: The process package has been deprecated. Use the superseding package Threads instead.

The pipe function opens a UNIX-style pipe, and returns a list of two file descriptors, the first of which is open for reading, and the second of which is open for writing.

Pipe files are opened with type BINARY.

The pipe function is usually used before calling fork. One process then writes into the pipe, and the other reads from it. Each process should close the end of the pipe it is not using. Bidirectional communications is accomplished using two pipes.

Pipe ends are closed using the close function.

A process can wait for data to become available for reading, or for a pipe to have space for writing, using the block function.

The pipe function is supported only on those platforms which provide operating system support for pipes (for example, UNIX).

The command with(process,pipe) allows the use of the abbreviated form of this command.