hello everybody,
I am writing a C implementation of the leaky bucket algorithm (networking)
using FIFOs in Linux.I have created 2 programs -one for the generator and one for the bucket and used 2 separate terminals for viewing inputs and outputs.Everything is moving along smoothly except the FIFOs!I am facing immense trouble using them
Any idea how fifos work internally?how reads and writes are performed on them and how i can set the ON_DELAY flag for reading from a fifo?Also,are fifos pipes or files or queues? Upon reading from a fifo, does the read element get 'deleted' or is it read again if no new elements are added?
Please help me.. there is so little material on fifos ..also the programs are part of a project.
Regards,
aru

I assume you are using mkfifo to make yourself a fifo?

If you are you are basically created a special file. Anyone can read or write to this file (providing they hae permissions) but there are some catches. The file must be open for reading AND writting before anyone can read or write to it.

When you read off the FIFO it removes the entry you read from the FIFO.

Basically, think of a FIFO as a pipe specially linked to a file on the file system. That file doesn't actually contain the data in the FIFO, it just acts as a reference so anyone can access the FIFO.

thanks a lot, jtshaw!
your tips certainly helped.One more thing though.
What does the 'BROKEN PIPE' error message mean?