NamedPipeClientStream Class

Named pipes provide one-way or duplex pipes for communication between a pipe server and one or more pipe clients. Named pipes can be used for interprocess communication locally or over a network. A single pipe name can be shared by multiple NamedPipeClientStream objects.

Any process can act as either a named pipe server or client, or both.

Note
For Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Server, a maximum of 10 pipes can simultaneously connect over the network.

Note

The HostProtectionAttribute attribute applied to this type or member has the following Resources property value: MayLeakOnAbort. The HostProtectionAttribute does not affect desktop applications (which are typically started by double-clicking an icon, typing a command, or entering a URL in a browser). For more information, see the HostProtectionAttribute class or SQL Server Programming and Host Protection Attributes.

The following example demonstrates a way to send a string from a parent process to a child process on the same computer using named pipes. This example creates a NamedPipeServerStream object in a parent process. The NamedPipeServerStream object has a PipeDirection value of Out. The server then waits for a NamedPipeClientStream object in a child process to connect to it. In this example, both processes are on the same computer and the NamedPipeClientStream object has a PipeDirection value of In. The parent process then sends a user-supplied string to the child process. The string is displayed to the console.

This example is for the client process, which connects to the server process. For the entire code sample, including the code for both the pipe client and server, see How to: Use Named Pipes for Network Interprocess Communication.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.IO.Pipes;

class PipeClient
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        using (NamedPipeClientStream pipeClient =
            new NamedPipeClientStream(".", "testpipe", PipeDirection.In))
        {

            // Connect to the pipe or wait until the pipe is available.
            Console.Write("Attempting to connect to pipe...");
            pipeClient.Connect();

            Console.WriteLine("Connected to pipe.");
            Console.WriteLine("There are currently {0} pipe server instances open.",
               pipeClient.NumberOfServerInstances);
            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(pipeClient))
            {
                // Display the read text to the console 
                string temp;
                while ((temp = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Received from server: {0}", temp);
                }
            }
        }
        Console.Write("Press Enter to continue...");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core Role not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Reference