=head1 NAME

IO::Pipe - supply object methods for pipes

=head1 SYNOPSIS

	use IO::Pipe;

	$pipe = new IO::Pipe;

	if($pid = fork()) { # Parent
	    $pipe->reader();

	    while(<$pipe>) {
		...
	    }

	}
	elsif(defined $pid) { # Child
	    $pipe->writer();

	    print $pipe ...
	}

	or

	$pipe = new IO::Pipe;

	$pipe->reader(qw(ls -l));

	while(<$pipe>) {
	    ...
	}

=head1 DESCRIPTION

C<IO::Pipe> provides an interface to creating pipes between
processes.

=head1 CONSTRUCTOR

=over 4

=item new ( [READER, WRITER] )

Creates an C<IO::Pipe>, which is a reference to a newly created symbol
(see the C<Symbol> package). C<IO::Pipe::new> optionally takes two
arguments, which should be objects blessed into C<IO::Handle>, or a
subclass thereof. These two objects will be used for the system call
to C<pipe>. If no arguments are given then method C<handles> is called
on the new C<IO::Pipe> object.

These two handles are held in the array part of the GLOB until either
C<reader> or C<writer> is called.

=back

=head1 METHODS

=over 4

=item reader ([ARGS])

The object is re-blessed into a sub-class of C<IO::Handle>, and becomes a
handle at the reading end of the pipe. If C<ARGS> are given then C<fork>
is called and C<ARGS> are passed to exec.

=item writer ([ARGS])

The object is re-blessed into a sub-class of C<IO::Handle>, and becomes a
handle at the writing end of the pipe. If C<ARGS> are given then C<fork>
is called and C<ARGS> are passed to exec.

=item handles ()

This method is called during construction by C<IO::Pipe::new>
on the newly created C<IO::Pipe> object. It returns an array of two objects
blessed into C<IO::Pipe::End>, or a subclass thereof.

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<IO::Handle>

=head1 AUTHOR

Graham Barr. Currently maintained by the Perl Porters.  Please report all
bugs to <perl5-porters@perl.org>.

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1996-8 Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut
