CAnonymousPipe v1.08

Welcome to CAnonymousPipe, A freeware C++ class to encapsulate the anonymous Pipe IPC method as provided in Win32.

Features

• Simple and clean C++ interface.
• The classes are fully Unicode compliant and include Unicode built options in the solution file.

Copyright

• You are allowed to include the source code in any product (commercial, shareware, freeware or otherwise) when your product is released in binary form.
• You are allowed to modify the source code in any way you want except you cannot modify the copyright details at the top of each module.
• If you want to distribute source code with your application, then you are only allowed to distribute versions released by the author. This is to maintain a single distribution point for the source code.

Usage

• To use the class in your code simply #include Apipe.h in which ever of your modules needs to make calls to the class.

History

v1.08 (9 April 2022)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated the code to use C++ uniform initialization for all variable declarations

v1.07 (3 May 2020)

• Updated copyright details.
• Fixed more Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.

v1.06 (2 June 2019)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated the code to clean compile on VC 2019

v1.05 (25 September 2018)

• Updated copyright details.
• Fixed a number of C++ core guidelines compiler warnings. These changes mean that the code will now only compile on VC 2017 or later.

1 May 2017

• Updated the demo app to compile cleanly using /permissive-.

v1.04 (16 January 2016)

• Updated copyright details.
• Verified the code compiles cleanly in VC 2015

v1.03 (9 April 2015)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated sample project settings to more modern default values
• Removed all TRACE calls from the class.
• Updated the code to clean compile on VC 2010 and later
• Added SAL annotations to all the code
• Reworked the class to make it a header only implementation.
• Updated the code to compile without taking a dependency on MFC

v1.02 (2 September 2008)

• Updated copyright details
• Code now compiles cleanly using Code Analysis (/analyze)
• Updated code to compile correctly using _ATL_CSTRING_EXPLICIT_CONSTRUCTORS define
• Updated sample app to clean compile on VC 2008
• The code has now been updated to support VC 2005 or later only.
• Reworked some of the Peek parameters to be pointers rather than references.

V1.01 (29 December 2006)

• Updated copyright details
• Optimized CAnonymousPipe constructor code
• Addition of a CANONYMOUSPIPE_EXT_CLASS preprocessor macro to allow the classes to be more easily added to an extension dll
• Remove derivation from CObject as it was not really required
• Updated the documentation to use the same style as the web site.
• Addition of a GetWriteHandle and GetReadHandle methods to provide access to the low level handles which the class encapsulates.
• Updated the code to clean compile on VC 2005

V1.0 (2 August 1998)

• Initial public release.

API Reference

The API consists of the class CAnonymousPipe and its public member functions

CAnonymousPipe
~CAnonymousPipe
Create
Close
Write
Read
Peek
IsOpen
GetWriteHandle
GetReadHandle

CAnonymousPipe::CAnonymousPipe

CAnonymousPipe();

Remarks

Standard default constructor. Initialises the pipe handles to a default value.

See Also

~CAnonymousPipe

CAnonymousPipe::~CAnonymousPipe

~CAnonymousPipe();

Remarks

Standard default destructor. Will close any pipe handles which are still open

See Also

CAnonymousPipe

CAnonymousPipe::Create

BOOL Create(LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES lpPipeAttributes = NULL, DWORD nSize = 0);

Return Value

Non-Zero if the anonymous pipe was successfully created otherwise FALSE. Use GetLastError to get extended error information.

Parameters

lpSecurityAttributes Pointer to a SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure that specifies a security descriptor for the new anonymous pipe and determines whether child processes can inherit the returned handle. If lpSecurityAttributes is NULL, the named pipe gets a default security descriptor and the handle cannot be inherited.

nSize Specifies the buffer size for the pipe. The size is only a suggestion; the system uses the value to calculate an appropriate buffering mechanism. If this parameter is zero, the system uses the default buffer size.

CAnonymousPipe::Close

BOOL Close();

Return Value

Non zero if the anonymous pipe was closed otherwise FALSE. Use GetLastError to get extended error information.

Remarks

Closes the pipe

CAnonymousPipe::Write

BOOL Write(LPCVOID lpBuffer, DWORD nNumberOfBytesToWrite, DWORD* lpNumberOfBytesWritten = NULL, LPOVERLAPPED lpOverlapped = NULL);

Return Value

Non zero if the write succeeded otherwise FALSE. To get extended error information use GetLastError.

Parameters

lpBuffer Points to the buffer containing the data to be written to the pipe.

dwNumberOfBytesToWrite Specifies the number of bytes to write to the pipe.

pNumberOfBytesWritten Points to the number of bytes written by this function call.

lpOverlapped Standard OVERLAPPED pointer. This is normally set to NULL for blocking IO calls.

Remarks

Performs a write to the anonymous pipe.

CAnonymousPipe::Read

BOOL Read(LPVOID lpBuffer, DWORD dwNumberOfBytesToRead, DWORD* lpNumberOfBytesRead = NULL, LPOVERLAPPED lpOverlapped = NULL);

Return Value

Non zero if the Read succeeded otherwise FALSE. To get extended error information use GetLastError.

Parameters

lpBuffer Points to the buffer to receive the data to be read.

nNumberOfBytesToWrite Specifies the number of bytes to read from the pipe.

lpNumberOfBytesWritten Points to the number of bytes read by this function call.

lpOverlapped Standard OVERLAPPED pointer. This is normally set to NULL for blocking IO calls.

Remarks

Performs a read from the anonymous pipe.

CAnonymousPipe::Peek

BOOL Peek(LPVOID lpBuffer, DWORD nBufferSize, DWORD* lpBytesRead = NULL, DWORD* lpTotalBytesAvail = NULL, DWORD* lpBytesLeftThisMessage = NULL);

Return Value

Non zero if the function succeeds otherwise FALSE. To get extended error information use GetLastError.

Parameters

lpBuffer Points to a buffer that receives data read from the pipe. This parameter can be NULL if no data is to be read.

nBufferSize Specifies the size, in bytes, of the buffer specified by the lpBuffer parameter. This parameter is ignored if lpBuffer is NULL.

lpBytesRead Pointer to a 32-bit variable that receives the number of bytes read from the pipe.

lpTotalBytesAvail Pointer to a 32-bit variable that receives the total number of bytes available to be read from the pipe.

lpBytesLeftThisMessage Pointer to a 32-bit variable that receives the number of bytes remaining in this message.

Remarks

Copies data from the pipe into a buffer without removing it from the pipe. It also returns information about data in the pipe.

CAnonymousPipe::IsOpen

BOOL IsOpen() const;

Return Value

Non zero if the pipe is open otherwise FALSE.

CAnonymousPipe::GetWriteHandle

HANDLE GetWriteHandle() const;

Return Value

The underlying write HANDLE which the class encapsulates.

CAnonymousPipe::GetReadHandle

HANDLE GetReadHandle() const;

Return Value

The underlying read HANDLE which the class encapsulates.

Contacting the Author

PJ Naughter
Email: pjna@naughter.com
Web: http://www.naughter.com
9 April 2022