Using named pipes in c - c

Question

i have this simple program that passes a value through a named pipe from child to parent process:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <semaphore.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char * myfifo = "/home/tmp/myfifo";
mkfifo(myfifo, 0666);
int fd,rec;
pid_t c=fork();
if(c==0){
fd = open(myfifo, O_WRONLY);
rec=100;
write(fd, rec, sizeof(rec));
}
if(c>0){
sleep(1);
fd = open(myfifo, O_RDONLY);
read(fd, rec, sizeof(rec));
printf("%d\n",fd);
printf("%d\n",rec);
}
}
This program prints fd=-1 and instead of rec being 100 it prints rec's address.I also tried putting &rec in read and write but it did not solve anything.What am i doing wrong?

Answer 1

There's an issue with this line:
write(fd, rec, sizeof(rec));
This is the prototype of write():
ssize_t write(int fd, const void *buf, size_t count);
That means that you're reading from the memory location stored in rec, not the content of rec.
The same thing applies for read(). You need to pass a pointer to rec instead of rec itself.
Also, always make sure to close files after you open and perform I/O on them.
Here's a correct copy of your code:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <semaphore.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
const char *myfifo = "/home/tmp/myfifo";
mkfifo(myfifo, 0666);
int fd, rec;
pid_t c = fork();
if(c == 0) {
fd = open(myfifo, O_WRONLY);
rec = 100;
write(fd, &rec, sizeof(rec));
close(fd);
}
if(c > 0) {
sleep(1);
fd = open(myfifo, O_RDONLY);
read(fd, &rec, sizeof(rec));
printf("%d\n", fd);
printf("%d\n", rec);
close(fd);
}
}
Of course, always make sure you have the proper permissions to create, read, and write files in that directory. Also, make sure the directory /home/tmp exists.