/*
 * one-way-pipe.c  - example of using a pipe to communicate data between a
 *                   process and its child process. The parent reads input
 *                   from the user, and sends it to the child via a pipe.
 *                   The child prints the received data to the screen.
 */

#include <stdio.h>    /* standard I/O routines.                */
#include <unistd.h>   /* defines pipe(), amongst other things. */

/* this routine handles the work of the child process. */
void do_child(int data_pipe[]) {
    int c;	/* data received from the parent. */
    int rc;	/* return status of read().       */

    /* first, close the un-needed write-part of the pipe. */
    close(data_pipe[1]);

    /* now enter a loop of reading data from the pipe, and printing it */
    while ((rc = read(data_pipe[0], &c, 1)) > 0) {
	putchar(c);
    }

    /* probably pipe was broken, or got EOF via the pipe. */
    exit(0);
}

/* this routine handles the work of the parent process. */
void do_parent(int data_pipe[])
{
    int c;	/* data received from the user. */
    int rc;	/* return status of getchar().  */

    /* first, close the un-needed read-part of the pipe. */
    close(data_pipe[0]);

    /* now enter a loop of read user input, and writing it to the pipe. */
    while ((c = getchar()) > 0) {
	/* write the character to the pipe. */
        rc = write(data_pipe[1], &c, 1);
	if (rc == -1) { /* write failed - notify the user and exit */
	    perror("Parent: write");
	    close(data_pipe[1]);
	    exit(1);
        }
    }

    /* probably got EOF from the user. */
    close(data_pipe[1]); /* close the pipe, to let the child know we're done. */
    exit(0);
}

/* and the main function. */
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    int data_pipe[2]; /* an array to store the file descriptors of the pipe. */
    int pid;       /* pid of child process, or 0, as returned via fork.    */
    int rc;        /* stores return values of various routines.            */

    /* first, create a pipe. */
    rc = pipe(data_pipe);
    if (rc == -1) {
	perror("pipe");
	exit(1);
    }

    /* now fork off a child process, and set their handling routines. */
    pid = fork();

    switch (pid) {
	case -1:	/* fork failed. */
	    perror("fork");
	    exit(1);
	case 0:		/* inside child process.  */
	    do_child(data_pipe);
	    /* NOT REACHED */
	default:	/* inside parent process. */
	    do_parent(data_pipe);
	    /* NOT REACHED */
    }

    return 0;	/* NOT REACHED */
}

Det er ikke Linux vers Solaris, er det Intel x86 vers Sparc. Din programmet vil fungere på en Intel x86 kjører Solaris. Intel x86 er lite endian mens Sparc er big endian.

Kode som dette:

int c;
read (data_pipe [0], & c, 1);

er søppel. Ta en titt på man-sidene for å lese og skrive.