What is a named pipe?

- A connection used to transfer data between separate processes, usually on separate computers.

- It is a pipe that an application opens by name in order to write data into or read data from the pipe.

- They are placed in the /dev directory and are treated as special files.

- Using a named pipe facilitates interprocess communications.

A named pipe is an extension of the concept ‘pipe’ in multitasking operating system. Inter process communication is implemented using a named pipe. A pipe / traditional pipe is unnamed. The reason is it persists as long as the process is executing. Where as a named pipe is system-persistent and exists more than a process running time. It can be removed if not required in future.