MKFIFO(3) Linux Programmer's Manual MKFIFO(3)NAMEmkfifo - make a FIFO special file (a named pipe)
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
int mkfifo(const char *pathname, mode_t mode);
DESCRIPTIONmkfifo() makes a FIFO special file with name pathname. mode specifies
the FIFO's permissions. It is modified by the process's umask in the
usual way: the permissions of the created file are (mode & ~umask).
A FIFO special file is similar to a pipe, except that it is created in
a different way. Instead of being an anonymous communications channel,
a FIFO special file is entered into the filesystem by calling mkfifo().
Once you have created a FIFO special file in this way, any process can
open it for reading or writing, in the same way as an ordinary file.
However, it has to be open at both ends simultaneously before you can
proceed to do any input or output operations on it. Opening a FIFO for
reading normally blocks until some other process opens the same FIFO
for writing, and vice versa. See fifo(7) for nonblocking handling of
FIFO special files.
RETURN VALUE
On success mkfifo() returns 0. In the case of an error, -1 is returned
(in which case, errno is set appropriately).
ERRORS
EACCES One of the directories in pathname did not allow search (exe‐
cute) permission.
EDQUOT The user's quota of disk blocks or inodes on the filesystem has
been exhausted.
EEXIST pathname already exists. This includes the case where pathname
is a symbolic link, dangling or not.
ENAMETOOLONG
Either the total length of pathname is greater than PATH_MAX, or
an individual filename component has a length greater than
NAME_MAX. In the GNU system, there is no imposed limit on over‐
all filename length, but some filesystems may place limits on
the length of a component.
ENOENT A directory component in pathname does not exist or is a dan‐
gling symbolic link.
ENOSPC The directory or filesystem has no room for the new file.
ENOTDIR
A component used as a directory in pathname is not, in fact, a
directory.
EROFS pathname refers to a read-only filesystem.
CONFORMING TO
POSIX.1-2001.
SEE ALSOmkfifo(1), close(2), open(2), read(2), stat(2), umask(2), write(2),
mkfifoat(3), fifo(7)COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.54 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
GNU 2013-01-27 MKFIFO(3)
