mkfifo

1. mkfifo is a command line tool used in Unix-like operating systems to create a named pipe, also known as a FIFO (first-in, first-out) special file.
2. It is commonly used for inter-process communication, allowing multiple processes to communicate through a pipe.
3. The mkfifo command creates a special file with the specified name and sets its permissions.
4. A named pipe behaves like a regular file, but it exists solely for communication between processes and does not store any data.
5. Once created, processes can open the named pipe for reading or writing, and the data flows from the writer process to the reader process in a first-in, first-out manner.
6. Any number of processes can write to and read from the named pipe concurrently.
7. If a process attempts to read from an empty named pipe, it will block until a writer writes data into it.
8. Similarly, if a process tries to write to a named pipe that has no reader, it will block until a reader process opens the pipe.
9. Named pipes can be used to implement client-server applications or coordinate communication between different components of a system.
10. Named pipes offer a simple and efficient way for processes to exchange data, making them a valuable tool in shell scripting and other system-level operations.