NAME

POE::Pipe::OneWay - a portable API for one-way pipes

SYNOPSIS

  my ($read, $write) = POE::Pipe::OneWay->new();
  die "couldn't create a pipe: $!" unless defined $read;

DESCRIPTION

The right way to create an anonymous pipe varies from one operating system to the next. Some operating systems support pipe(). Others require socketpair(). And a few operating systems support neither, so a plain old socket must be created.

POE::Pipe::OneWay will attempt to create a unidirectional pipe using pipe(), socketpair(), and IO::Socket::INET, in that order. Exceptions are hardcoded for operating systems with broken or nonstandard behaviors.

The upshot of all this is that an application can portably create a one-way pipe by instantiating POE::Pipe::OneWay. The work of deciding how to create the pipe and opening the handles will be taken care of internally.

POE::Pipe::OneWay may be used outside of POE, as it doesn't use POE internally.

PUBLIC METHODS

new [TYPE]

Create a new one-way pipe, optionally constraining it to a particular TYPE of pipe. One-way pipes have two ends: a "read" end and a "write" end. On success, new() returns two handles: one for the "read" end and one for the "write" end. Returns nothing on failure, and sets $! to explain why the constructor failed.

  my ($read, $write) = POE::Pipe::OneWay->new();
  die $! unless defined $read;

TYPE may be one of "pipe", "socketpair", or "inet". When set, POE::Pipe::OneWay will constrain its search to either pipe(), a UNIX-domain socketpair(), or plain old sockets, respectively. Otherwise new() will try each method in order, or a particular method predetermined to be the best one for the current operating environment.

BUGS

POE::Pipe::OneWay may block up to one second on some systems if failure occurs while trying to create "inet" sockets.