MKFIFO(3)		   Linux Programmers Manual		    MKFIFO(3)



NAME
       mkfifo - make a FIFO special file (a named pipe)

SYNOPSIS
       #include 
       #include 

       int mkfifo(const char *pathname, mode_t mode);

DESCRIPTION
       mkfifo()  makes a FIFO special file with name pathname.	mode specifies
       the FIFOs permissions.  It is modified by the processs 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  file  system 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 non-blocking 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.

       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 file systems 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 file system 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 file system.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001.

SEE ALSO
       mkfifo(1),  close(2),  open(2),	read(2),  stat(2), umask(2), write(2),
       mkfifoat(3), fifo(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.05 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				  2008-06-12			     MKFIFO(3)