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Linux & Shell · Concept

Pipes

A Linux pipe is a one-way byte stream between processes. pipe() returns separate file descriptors for reading and writing; reads and writes normally wait when the pipe cannot proceed.

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Syntax

int pipe(int pipefd[2]);

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  • pipe(2)
  • mkfifo(3)
  • fifo(7)
  • read(2)
  • write(2)
  • fcntl(2)
  • FIONREAD
  • F_SETPIPE_SZ

Source: pipe(7) - Linux manual page. Checked 2026-11-03.