Named Pipe Server Process - Win32 Programmer's Reference

Custom Search

Named Pipe Server Process

The simplest server process can use the CreateNamedPipe function to create a single instance of a pipe, connect to a single client, communicate with the client, disconnect the pipe, close the pipe handle, and terminate. Typically, however, a server process must communicate with multiple client processes. A server process can use a single pipe instance by connecting to and disconnecting from each client in sequence, but performance would be poor. To handle multiple clients simultaneously, the server process must create multiple pipe instances.

There are three basic strategies for servicing multiple pipe instances.

Create multiple threads (and/or processes) with a separate thread for each instance of the pipe. For an example of a multithreaded server process, see Multithreaded Server.
Overlap operations by specifying an OVERLAPPED structure in the ReadFile, WriteFile, and ConnectNamedPipe functions. For an example of a server process that uses overlapped operations, see Server Using Overlapped Input and Output.
Overlap operations by using the ReadFileEx and WriteFileEx functions, which specify a completion routine to be executed when the operation is complete. For an example of a server process that uses completion routines, see Server Using Completion Routines.

The multithreaded server strategy is easy to write, because the thread for each instance handles communications for only a single client. The system allocates processor time to each thread as needed. But each thread uses system resources, which is a potential disadvantage for a server that handles a large number of clients. Other complications occur if the actions of one client necessitate communications with other clients (as for a network game program, where a move by one player must be communicated to the other players).

With a single-threaded server, it is easier to coordinate operations that affect multiple clients, and it is easier to protect shared resources (for example, a database file) from simultaneous access by multiple clients. The challenge of a single-threaded server is that it requires coordination of overlapped operations in order to allocate processor time for handling the simultaneous needs of the clients.

Last news from Greatis Software

    Nostalgia .Net     .Net is powerful, but not all-powerful, so sometimes we need to use Win32 API for our .Net applications. It's simple enough with Platform Invoke if you have Win32 skill, but we do not always have time to dig the ancient documentation, declare the special types that are compatible with Win32, find the values of the Win32's constants and so on. Nostalgia .Net offers several simple-to-use classes, and components that will allow you to forget about the headache of Win32 and just use the power of Win32 in your application the same way as you use the native. Net classes. More »

Recommended software for developers

    Ultimate Pack     Component pack for Delphi and C++ Builder that contains runtime form designer, runtime object inspector, print suite and much more for the very special price. More »

    Form Designer .Net     Unique runtime form design solution that allows to edit any form in .Net WinForms application at runtime with full source codes for only 300 euro! More »

    Print Suite .Net     Print Suite .Net is a set of components for easy printing texts, images and grids from your WinForms applications. Full C# source codes are available More »

    Gradient Controls .Net     Gradient Controls .Net offers controls with gradient background feature. Labels, panels and so on... Full C# source codes are available More »

    Greatis iGrid     iGrid plots drawing grid right over your desktop, so you can use it everywhere, with any drawing application without any special plugins for different graphic editors. More »

All the contacts and projects

Dmitry Vasiliev (just.dmitry)

More Online Helps

Win32 Programmer's Reference
Win32 Multimedia Programmer's Reference
OLE Programmer's Reference
Microsoft Windows Pen API Programmer's Reference
Microsoft Windows Sockets 2 Reference
Microsoft Windows Telephony API (TAPI) Programmer's Reference
Unix Manual Pages

greatis just4fun network