.\" Copyright Andries Brouwer, Ragnar Hojland Espinosa and A. Wik, 1998.
.\"
.\" This file may be copied under the conditions described
.\" in the LDP GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, Version 1, September 1998
.\" that should have been distributed together with this file.
.\"
.TH MKFIFO 1 1998-11 "GNU fileutils 4.0"
.SH NAME
mkfifo \- make FIFOs (named pipes)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BI "mkfifo [" options "] " file...
.sp
POSIX options:
.BI "[\-m " mode "] [\-\-]"
.sp
GNU options (shortest form):
.BI "[\-m " mode "] [\-\-help] [\-\-version] [\-\-]"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B mkfifo
creates FIFOs (also called "named pipes") with the
specified filenames.
.PP
A "FIFO" is a special file type that permits independent processes
to communicate.  One process opens the FIFO file for writing, and
another for reading, after which data can flow as with the usual
anonymous pipe in shells or elsewhere.
.PP
By default, the mode of created FIFOs is 0666 (`a+rw') minus the bits set
in the umask.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.BI "\-m " mode ", \-\-mode=" mode
Set the mode of created FIFOs to
.IR mode ,
which can be symbolic as in
.BR chmod (1)
and uses the default mode as the point of departure.
.TP
.B "\-\-"
Terminate option list.
.SH "GNU STANDARD OPTIONS"
.TP
.B "\-\-help"
Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.
.TP
.B "\-\-version"
Print version information on standard output, then exit successfully.
.TP
.B "\-\-"
Terminate option list.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
The variables LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE and LC_MESSAGES have the
usual meaning.
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
POSIX 1003.2
.SH NOTES
This page describes
.B mkfifo
as found in the fileutils-4.0 package;
other versions may differ slightly.