Example of Named Pipes

Question

How do I write a simple--bare minimum needed for it to work--test application that illustrates how to use IPC/Named Pipes?

For example, how would one write a console application where Program 1 says "Hello World" to Program 2 and Program 2 receives message and replies "Roger That" to Program 1.

Answer 1

For someone who is new to IPC and Named Pipes, I found the following NuGet package to be a great help.

GitHub: Named Pipe Wrapper for .NET 4.0

To use first install the package:

PS> Install-Package NamedPipeWrapper

Then an example server (copied from the link):

var server = new NamedPipeServer<SomeClass>("MyServerPipe");
server.ClientConnected += delegate(NamedPipeConnection<SomeClass> conn)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Client {0} is now connected!", conn.Id);
        conn.PushMessage(new SomeClass { Text: "Welcome!" });
    };

server.ClientMessage += delegate(NamedPipeConnection<SomeClass> conn, SomeClass message)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Client {0} says: {1}", conn.Id, message.Text);
    };

server.Start();

Example client:

var client = new NamedPipeClient<SomeClass>("MyServerPipe");
client.ServerMessage += delegate(NamedPipeConnection<SomeClass> conn, SomeClass message)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Server says: {0}", message.Text);
    };

client.Start();

Best thing about it for me is that unlike the accepted answer here it supports multiple clients talking to a single server.

Answer 2

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.IO.Pipes;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            StartServer();
            Task.Delay(1000).Wait();


            //Client
            var client = new NamedPipeClientStream("PipesOfPiece");
            client.Connect();
            StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(client);
            StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(client);

            while (true)
            {
                string input = Console.ReadLine();
                if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(input)) break;
                writer.WriteLine(input);
                writer.Flush();
                Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadLine());
            }
        }

        static void StartServer()
        {
            Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
            {
                var server = new NamedPipeServerStream("PipesOfPiece");
                server.WaitForConnection();
                StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(server);
                StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(server);
                while (true)
                {
                    var line = reader.ReadLine();
                    writer.WriteLine(String.Join("", line.Reverse()));
                    writer.Flush();
                }
            });
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

FYI dotnet core on linux doesn't support namedpipes, try tcplistener instead if you're on linux

This code has a client round trip a byte.

• Client writes byte
• Server reads byte
• Server writes byte
• Client reads byte

DotNet Core 2.0 Server ConsoleApp

using System;
using System.IO.Pipes;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Server
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var server = new NamedPipeServerStream("A", PipeDirection.InOut);
            server.WaitForConnection();

            for (int i =0; i < 10000; i++)
            {
                var b = new byte[1];
                server.Read(b, 0, 1); 
                Console.WriteLine("Read Byte:" + b[0]);
                server.Write(b, 0, 1);
            }
        }
    }
}

DotNet Core 2.0 Client ConsoleApp

using System;
using System.IO.Pipes;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Client
{
    class Program
    {
        public static int threadcounter = 1;
        public static NamedPipeClientStream client;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            client = new NamedPipeClientStream(".", "A", PipeDirection.InOut, PipeOptions.Asynchronous);
            client.Connect();

            var t1 = new System.Threading.Thread(StartSend);
            var t2 = new System.Threading.Thread(StartSend);

            t1.Start();
            t2.Start(); 
        }

        public static void StartSend()
        {
            int thisThread = threadcounter;
            threadcounter++;

            StartReadingAsync(client);

            for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
            {
                var buf = new byte[1];
                buf[0] = (byte)i;
                client.WriteAsync(buf, 0, 1);

                Console.WriteLine($@"Thread{thisThread} Wrote: {buf[0]}");
            }
        }

        public static async Task StartReadingAsync(NamedPipeClientStream pipe)
        {
            var bufferLength = 1; 
            byte[] pBuffer = new byte[bufferLength];

            await pipe.ReadAsync(pBuffer, 0, bufferLength).ContinueWith(async c =>
            {
                Console.WriteLine($@"read data {pBuffer[0]}");
                await StartReadingAsync(pipe); // read the next data <-- 
            });
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

You can actually write to a named pipe using its name, btw.

Open a command shell as Administrator to get around the default "Access is denied" error:

echo Hello > \\.\pipe\PipeName