<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN"> <!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 96.1-c (Feb 29, 1996) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds --> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>6.3.4 Blocking Actions on a FIFO</TITLE> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="6.3.4 Blocking Actions on a FIFO"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="lpg"> <META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document"> <META NAME="distribution" CONTENT="global"> <LINK REL=STYLESHEET HREF="lpg.css"> </HEAD> <BODY LANG="EN"> <A NAME="tex2html559" HREF="node20.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="/icons//next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html557" HREF="node15.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="/icons//up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html551" HREF="node18.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="/icons//previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html561" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="/icons//contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR> <B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html560" HREF="node20.html">6.3.5 The Infamous SIGPIPE </A> <B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html558" HREF="node15.html">6.3 Named Pipes (FIFOs </A> <B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html552" HREF="node18.html">6.3.3 FIFO Operations</A> <BR> <P> <H2><A NAME="SECTION00734000000000000000">6.3.4 Blocking Actions on a FIFO</A></H2> <P> Normally, blocking occurs on a FIFO. In other words, if the FIFO is opened for reading, the process will "block" until some other process opens it for writing. This action works vice-versa as well. If this behavior is undesirable, the O_NONBLOCK flag can be used in an open() call to disable the default blocking action. <P> In the case with our simple server, we just shoved it into the background, and let it do its blocking there. The alternative would be to jump to another virtual console and run the client end, switching back and forth to see the resulting action. <P> <BR> <HR> <P><ADDRESS> <I>Converted on: <BR> Fri Mar 29 14:43:04 EST 1996</I> </ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML>