Python natively supports named pipes only in Posix systems via os.mkfifo.
This package extends the support to Windows and defines a NPopen class as
a cross-platform solution to manage named pipes.
pip install namedpipeimport subproces as sp
from namedpipe import NPopen
# 1. Use the context-managing `NPopen` class to open an (auto-)named pipe
# - specify the mode argument with the standard notation (see built-in open())
with NPopen('r+') as pipe: # bidirectional (duplex) binary pipe
# - for an inbound pipe, specify the read access mode 'rb' or 'rt'
# - for an outbound pipe, specify the write access mode 'wb or 'wt'
pipe.readable() # returns True if yields a readable stream
pipe.writable() # returns True if yields a writable stream
# 2. Get the pipe path via pipe.path or str(pipe) to start the client program
sp.run(['my_client', pipe.path])
# auto-generated pipe paths (incremental integer pipe #):
# - Posix: $TMPDIR/pipe[a-z0-9_]{8}/[0-9]+ (random pipe directory name)
# - Windows: \\.\pipe\[0-9]+
# 3. Wait for the client to connect and create a stream
# - blocks until connection is established
# - returns an io-compatible stream
stream = pipe.wait()
# 4. Perform read/write operation with stream (or pipe.stream) as a file-like object
b = stream.read(64) # read 64 bytes from the client
b = pipe.stream.read(64) # same call but using the stream property
in_bytes = bytearray(128)
nread = stream.readinto(in_bytes) # read 128 bytes of data from client and place them in in_bytes
b_rest = stream.readall() # read all bytes sent by the client, block till client closes the pipe
stream.write(out_bytes) # send bytes in out_bytes to the client
# 5. the stream is automatically closed and the pipe object is destroyed
# when comes out of the contextTBD
