‘Pipes’ are used for

Concept

In an operating system, a pipe is an inter-process communication mechanism that carries a stream of data in one direction. It connects the standard output of one process to the standard input of another, allowing the processes to work as a pipeline.

Application

1. A producing program writes data to its stdout stream.

2. The shell operator | directs that stream into a pipe.

3. A consuming program reads the same data from its stdin stream; for example, producer | consumer sends the producer output to the consumer input.

Contrast

• A device-to-device connection is normally handled through a hardware bus, cable, or network protocol.

• A user-to-user connection is normally provided by a communication application or service.

• None of these does not apply because the process-stream use is explicitly listed.

Cross-check

Tracing the data flow gives process A stdout → pipe → process B stdin, which matches the stated program-to-program use.

Therefore, pipes connect the output of one program or command to the input of another program or command.