Like anonymous pipes, named pipes are used to transfer data back and forth between processes. Unlike anonymous pipes, however, named pipes can operate between unrelated processes and across a network between computers. Typically, a server process creates a named pipe with a well-known name. Client processes that can get the name of the pipe can open the other end of the pipe, subject to access restrictions specified by the pipe's creator. After they are connected, the server and client can exchange data by performing read and write operations on the pipe. Alternatively, the pipe creator can create a pipe and let a child process inherit the handle to the pipe, or it can create a pipe with a unique name and communicate that name to the client through some other IPC mechanism (such as a mailslot maintained by the client).
Key Point Named pipes provide a relatively simple programming interface that makes transferring data across a network no more difficult than transferring data between two processes on the same computer. For more information, see Pipes.