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IO::Pipe(3pm)                         Perl Programmers Reference Guide                         IO::Pipe(3pm)



NAME
       IO::Pipe - supply object methods for pipes

SYNOPSIS
               use IO::Pipe;

               $pipe = new IO::Pipe;

               if($pid = fork()) { # Parent
                   $pipe->reader();

                   while(<$pipe>) {
                       ...
                   }

               }
               elsif(defined $pid) { # Child
                   $pipe->writer();

                   print $pipe ...
               }

               or

               $pipe = new IO::Pipe;

               $pipe->reader(qw(ls -l));

               while(<$pipe>) {
                   ...
               }

DESCRIPTION
       "IO::Pipe" provides an interface to creating pipes between processes.

CONSTRUCTOR
       new ( [READER, WRITER] )
           Creates an "IO::Pipe", which is a reference to a newly created symbol (see the "Symbol" package).
           "IO::Pipe::new" optionally takes two arguments, which should be objects blessed into "IO::Han-dle", "IO::Handle",
           dle", or a subclass thereof. These two objects will be used for the system call to "pipe". If no
           arguments are given then method "handles" is called on the new "IO::Pipe" object.

           These two handles are held in the array part of the GLOB until either "reader" or "writer" is
           called.

METHODS
       reader ([ARGS])
           The object is re-blessed into a sub-class of "IO::Handle", and becomes a handle at the reading
           end of the pipe. If "ARGS" are given then "fork" is called and "ARGS" are passed to exec.

       writer ([ARGS])
           The object is re-blessed into a sub-class of "IO::Handle", and becomes a handle at the writing
           end of the pipe. If "ARGS" are given then "fork" is called and "ARGS" are passed to exec.

       handles ()
           This method is called during construction by "IO::Pipe::new" on the newly created "IO::Pipe"
           object. It returns an array of two objects blessed into "IO::Pipe::End", or a subclass thereof.

SEE ALSO
       IO::Handle

AUTHOR
       Graham Barr. Currently maintained by the Perl Porters.  Please report all bugs to
       <perl5-porters@perl.org>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 1996-8 Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>. All rights reserved.  This program is free soft-ware; software;
       ware; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.



perl v5.8.8                                      2001-09-21                                    IO::Pipe(3pm)