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::Handle, 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 software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.