unix-fifo-async

[WIP] Eases working with Unix named pipes (FIFOs) anywhere on the filesystem.

Because of the way this works currently, there's no real way to get a lock on the pipe, but there are convenience methods on both NamedPipePath and NamedPipeReader/NamedPipeWriter to ensure the pipe exists.

Example

Create a pipe, write to it in one async task and read from it in another:

use unix_fifo_async::NamedPipePath;
use async_std::task;

// Create a new pipe at the given path
let pipe = NamedPipePath::new("./my_pipe");
// This creates the path if it doesn't exist; it may return a nix::Error
// You can also use the `ensure_pipe_exists` convenience method on
// readers/writers, but calling it on both at the same time results
// in a race condition so it can never succeed.
pipe.ensure_exists().unwrap();
// Create a writer and a reader on the path
let writer = pipe.open_write();
let reader = pipe.open_read();

// Some data we can send over the pipe
let data_to_send = "Hello, pipes!";

// Spawn two tasks, one for writing to and one for reading from the pipe.
let t1 = task::spawn(async move { writer.write_str(data_to_send).await });
let t2 = task::spawn(async move { reader.read_string().await });

// `.await` both tasks and compare the result with the original
t1.await?;
let read_result = t2.await?;
assert_eq!(read_result, data_to_send);

// Delete the pipe
pipe.delete().await?;

Note that in practice, you'll probably want to read the pipe from a different process or have it read by an entirely different program.