Pipe in computing and its Mechanism

Pipes

A pipe in computing (Operating System) is a way of communication between more than one process in memory. Pipe strictly follow the mechanism of Inter-Process Communication (IPC). Pipes were one of the first IPC mechanism in early UNIX systems. The pipe provides one of the simplest way of communication between different process, but it has some limitations. In implementing a pipe four issues, must be considered;

General View of a Pipe

1. Does the pipe allow bi-directional communication, or it only support uni-directional communication between processes?
2. If pipes allow two-way communication, is it half duplex (data can travel only one way at a time) or full duplex (data can travel in both directions at a time)?
3. Is any relation exists (such as a parent-child relationship) between communicating processes?
4. Can the pipe communicate over a network, or must the communicating processes reside on the same machine?

In the computing, pipes are divided into two types;

1. Ordinary Pipes
2. Named pipes

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