Named pipes vs Regular files

A named pipe is a special file which exist as a file in a file system. There are few key differences between a regular file and a named pipe.

Named Pipes	Regular Files
A named pipe cannot be opened for read and write at the same time.	A regular pipe can be opened for read and write at the same time.
Both read and write operation on a are blocking.	Regular files are always readable and they are also always writeable.
It has no content on the file system that is a named pipe even with data appears to be empty.	A regular file as content on the file system.
Movement of file current position like seek() API is not possible for the named pipes.	Movement of file current position that is seek() API can be used with a regular file.

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‹ Named pipe Vs unnamed pipe

Broken pipe error(SIGPIPE) ›

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Categories: Operating system (OS)