In computer science, an anonymous pipe is a simplexFIFO communication channel that may be used for one-way interprocess communication (IPC). An implementation is often integrated into the operating system's file IO subsystem. Typically a parent program opens anonymous pipes, and creates a new process that inherits the other ends of the pipes, or creates several new processes and arranges them in a pipeline.
Full-duplex (two-way) communication normally requires two anonymous pipes.
Pipelines are supported in most popular operating systems, from Unix and DOS onwards, and are created using the "|" character.
Pipelines are an important part of many traditional Unix applications and support for them is well integrated into most Unix-like operating systems. Pipes are created using the pipesystem call, which creates a new pipe and returns a pair of file descriptors referring to the read and write ends of the pipe. Many traditional Unix programs are designed as filters to work with pipes.
A smoking pipe is a device made to allow the user to inhale or taste smoke or vapor derived from the burning or vaporization of some substance. The most common form of these is the tobacco pipe, which is designed for use with tobacco, although the device itself may be used with many other substances. The pipes are manufactured with a variety of materials, the most common (as the popularity of its use): Briar, Heather, corn, meerschaum, clay, cherry, glass, porcelain, ebonite, acrylic and other more unusual materials. Other kinds of smoking pipes include: