[TUHS] Pipes on Eunice

[Paul Winalski via TUHS]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 2:43 PM G. Branden Robinson <
g.branden.robinson at gmail.com> wrote:
[regarding the inability to detect the "broken pipe" condition with VMS
mailboxes]

>
> I wonder if Dave Cutler et al. brought VMS mailboxes to Windows NT with
> this design flaw, remedied it, or went another direction with IPC.
>
> The Windows NT API has a CreatePipe() function.  It creates the
pseudo-device and returns a read-only and a write-only file handle to it.
So Windows NT implements true Unix pipes.  AFAIK NT does not implement
VMS-style mailboxes.  Just as well--IMO the inability to detect a broken
connection condition is a serious design flaw in mailboxes.  User-level
programmers have to roll their own disconnect detection mechanism; they get
no help from the VMS OS.

-Paul W.