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::new creates a 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 then method handles is called on the new IO::Pipe object.

These two handles are held in the array part of the GLOB untill either reader or writer is called.

$fh->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.

$fh->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.

$fh->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::Handle, or a subclass thereof.

SEE ALSO

IO::Handle

AUTHOR

Graham Barr <bodg@tiuk.ti.com>

REVISION

$Revision: 1.4 $

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1995 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.