XSTeem beta, and networking.....

[leech]

Ok this may be unanswerable, but what the heck..... I've been on the XSTeem mailing list forever (XSTeem for those that do not know, is an Atari STE emulator for.... you guessed it, X.) The beta has a feature that you can select for playing networkable games (like Stunt Car Racer, Populous 2 and MIDI Maze, if anyone remembers these lovely jewels of gamedom...) The problem is, the interface on it has a selection called "Named Pipes." I volunteered on the list to test this out, since I have two linux boxes right here in my room that I can try it out on. The problem is, I'm not sure what file to select for the pipes to go through eth0. Any ideas?

(note the Author of STeem himself does not have a LAN so he has no idea how any of this works. His reply to me when I asked what files should be on the file selector;

"I've never had
a LAN so I really don't know how any of this stuff works. The other
tester mentioned something about a network forwarder being required
(probably to take the raw bytes from the pipe and transfer them over the
network). I've asked him for details, when he replies I'll let you know."

http://www.steem.quicksurfer.co.uk/

Leech

[Ribbit]

Named pipes are for communication between processes on the same system. They can't/aren't meant to be used over a network. You'd probably have to do some trickery with something like netcat.

[runderwo]

Well, the named pipe is just a fifo on your machine, so he is correct, without extra help (in the form of a network daemon managing the fifo) there isn't much going to be happening on the network. Perhaps you could use something like netcat on both machines?

[Marshmallowman]

I think you can just create a named pipe on one computer and then connect to it by another if the file is a shared network drive...

A named pipe is a special type of file (fifo)

check this link

http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Xmgr/doc/npipe.html

[leech]

Sweet! Thanks, I'll have to give it a shot next time I'm in linux.... Lately I've been waisting way too much time playing Chaser and CMR2.

Leech

[Ribbit]

Originally posted by Marshmallowman
I think you can just create a named pipe on one computer and then connect to it by another if the file is a shared network drive...

Sorry to be a pessimist, but I'd almost bet money that that won't work. No file I/O actually happens - the object on the filesystem just serves as a common point for two programs to connect to. The actual data transfer is handled within the kernel, probably by a shared memory mechanism.

But please tell me if I'm wrong.