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.\" changed section from 2 to 3, aeb, 950919
.\"
.TH MKFIFO 3 2013-01-27 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
mkfifo \- make a FIFO special file (a named pipe)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <sys/types.h>
.B #include <sys/stat.h>
.sp
.BI "int mkfifo(const char *" pathname ", mode_t " mode );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR mkfifo ()
makes a FIFO special file with name \fIpathname\fP.
\fImode\fP specifies the FIFO's permissions.
It is modified by the
process's \fBumask\fP in the usual way: the permissions of the created
file are \fB(\fP\fImode\fP\fB & ~umask)\fP.
.PP
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
.BR mkfifo ().
.PP
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
.BR fifo (7)
for nonblocking handling of FIFO special files.
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success
.BR mkfifo ()
returns 0.
In the case of an error, \-1 is returned (in which case, \fIerrno\fP
is set appropriately).
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EACCES
One of the directories in \fIpathname\fP did not allow search
(execute) permission.
.TP
.B EDQUOT
The user's quota of disk blocks or inodes on the file system has been
exhausted.
.TP
.B EEXIST
\fIpathname\fP already exists.
This includes the case where
.I pathname
is a symbolic link, dangling or not.
.TP
.B ENAMETOOLONG
Either the total length of \fIpathname\fP is greater than
\fBPATH_MAX\fP, or an individual filename component has a length
greater than \fBNAME_MAX\fP.
In the GNU system, there is no imposed
limit on overall filename length, but some file systems may place
limits on the length of a component.
.TP
.B ENOENT
A directory component in \fIpathname\fP does not exist or is a
dangling symbolic link.
.TP
.B ENOSPC
The directory or file system has no room for the new file.
.TP
.B ENOTDIR
A component used as a directory in \fIpathname\fP is not, in fact, a
directory.
.TP
.B EROFS
\fIpathname\fP refers to a read-only file system.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lbw20 lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.BR mkfifo (),
.BR mkfifoat ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH CONFORMING TO
POSIX.1-2001.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR mkfifo (1),
.BR close (2),
.BR open (2),
.BR read (2),
.BR stat (2),
.BR umask (2),
.BR write (2),
.BR mkfifoat (3),
.BR fifo (7)
.SH COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.53 of the Linux
.I man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
and information about reporting bugs,
can be found at
\%http://www.kernel.org/doc/man\-pages/.
