| MadSci Network: Computer Science |
A 'pipe' is a way to move information - usually represented by the symbol | (a vertical line). On UNIX systems you use the pipe to shunt the output of one command through a second command. An example might be:
ls /dir/of/my/files/ | grep nickThis gibberish first says (to the left of the |) 'list all everything in the directory dir/of/my/files.' The output which would be a listing is fed through the grep command - a search command that looks for anything with nick in the name.
So if /dir/of/my/files/ has the following things in it:
dates calendar nicks_list circus_box calculator nickerbockerThe ls command will give output of everything in the directory. The ls command + the pipe through grep nick will only output nicks_list and nickerbocker.
A broken pipe happens when the information to the left of the pipe command can't properly be shunted through the right side of the command. This can also be called a pipeline burst. If you mean something else, feel free to ask again.
-Nick