Overlapped I/O on anonymous pipe

Question

Is it possible to use overlapped I/O with an anonymous pipe? CreatePipe() does not have any way of specifying FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED, so I assume ReadFile() will block, even i

Answer 1

first of all need understand - what is Anonymous Pipes and what, are exist difference between anonymous and Named Pipes at all.

really exist only single pipe type (implemented by npfs.sys). no any difference, except name, between named and anonymous pipes at all. both is only pipes.

so called anonymous pipes - this is special/random named pipes before win7 and true unnamed pipes begin from win7.

when msdn write that "anonymous pipe is one-way pipe" - this is lie. as any pipe it can be one-way or duplex. when msdn write that "Asynchronous (overlapped) read and write operations are not supported by anonymous pipes." - this is lie. of course pipes support asynchronous io. the name of pipe not affect this.

before win7 really unnamed pipes even not exist at all. CreatePipe function use Win32Pipes.%08x.%08x format for create name of "Anonymous Pipe".

    static LONG PipeSerialNumber;
    WCHAR name[64];
    swprintf(name, L"\\Device\\NamedPipe\\Win32Pipes.%08x.%08x", 
        GetCurrentProcessId(), InterlockedIncrement(&PipeSerialNumber));

begin from win7 CreatePipe use another technique (relative file open) for create pipe pair - now it really anonymous.

for example code witch create pipe pair where one pipe is asynchronous and not inheritable. and another pipe is synchronous and inheritable. both pipes is duplex (support both read and write)

ULONG CreatePipeAnonymousPair7(PHANDLE phServerPipe, PHANDLE phClientPipe)
{
    HANDLE hNamedPipe;

    IO_STATUS_BLOCK iosb;

    static UNICODE_STRING NamedPipe = RTL_CONSTANT_STRING(L"\\Device\\NamedPipe\\");

    OBJECT_ATTRIBUTES oa = { sizeof(oa), 0, const_cast(&NamedPipe), OBJ_CASE_INSENSITIVE };

    NTSTATUS status;

    if (0 <= (status = NtOpenFile(&hNamedPipe, SYNCHRONIZE, &oa, &iosb, FILE_SHARE_VALID_FLAGS, 0)))
    {
        oa.RootDirectory = hNamedPipe;

        static LARGE_INTEGER timeout = { 0, MINLONG };
        static UNICODE_STRING empty = {};

        oa.ObjectName = ∅

        if (0 <= (status = ZwCreateNamedPipeFile(phServerPipe,
            FILE_READ_ATTRIBUTES|FILE_READ_DATA|
            FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES|FILE_WRITE_DATA|
            FILE_CREATE_PIPE_INSTANCE, 
            &oa, &iosb, FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,
            FILE_CREATE, 0, FILE_PIPE_BYTE_STREAM_TYPE, FILE_PIPE_BYTE_STREAM_MODE,
            FILE_PIPE_QUEUE_OPERATION, 1, 0, 0, &timeout)))
        {
            oa.RootDirectory = *phServerPipe;
            oa.Attributes = OBJ_CASE_INSENSITIVE|OBJ_INHERIT;

            if (0 > (status = NtOpenFile(phClientPipe, SYNCHRONIZE|FILE_READ_ATTRIBUTES|FILE_READ_DATA|
                FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES|FILE_WRITE_DATA, &oa, &iosb, 
                FILE_SHARE_VALID_FLAGS, FILE_SYNCHRONOUS_IO_NONALERT)))
            {
                NtClose(oa.RootDirectory);
            }
        }

        NtClose(hNamedPipe);
    }

    return RtlNtStatusToDosError(status);
}

ULONG CreatePipeAnonymousPair(PHANDLE phServerPipe, PHANDLE phClientPipe)
{
    static char flag_supported = -1;

    if (flag_supported < 0)
    {
        ULONG dwMajorVersion, dwMinorVersion;
        RtlGetNtVersionNumbers(&dwMajorVersion, &dwMinorVersion, 0);
        flag_supported = _WIN32_WINNT_WIN7 <= ((dwMajorVersion << 8)| dwMinorVersion);
    }

    if (flag_supported)
    {
        return CreatePipeAnonymousPair7(phServerPipe, phClientPipe);
    }

    static LONG PipeSerialNumber;

    WCHAR name[64];

    swprintf(name, L"\\\\?\\pipe\\Win32Pipes.%08x.%08x", GetCurrentProcessId(), InterlockedIncrement(&PipeSerialNumber));

    HANDLE hClient, hServer = CreateNamedPipeW(name, 
        PIPE_ACCESS_DUPLEX|FILE_READ_DATA|FILE_WRITE_DATA|FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED, 
        PIPE_TYPE_BYTE|PIPE_READMODE_BYTE, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);

    if (hServer != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
    {
        static SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES sa = { sizeof(sa), 0, TRUE };

        hClient = CreateFileW(name, FILE_GENERIC_READ|FILE_GENERIC_WRITE, 
            FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE, &sa, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, 0);

        if (hClient != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
        {
            *phServerPipe = hServer, *phClientPipe = hClient;
            return NOERROR;
        }

        CloseHandle(hServer);
    }

    return GetLastError();
}