How to Work with Unix Pipes in Go

Use os.Pipe() to create a pipe and io.Copy() to transfer data between the reader and writer ends. This connects two goroutines or processes so the output of one becomes the input of the other.

package main

import (
	"io"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	// Create a pipe
	reader, writer, err := os.Pipe()
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	// Write data to the pipe
	go func() {
		defer writer.Close()
		writer.Write([]byte("Hello, pipe!"))
	}()

	// Read data from the pipe
	data, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	println(string(data))
	reader.Close()
}

A Unix pipe in Go is a one-way communication channel that connects two parts of your program. It works like a digital tube where data written by one process flows directly into another process. You use this to chain commands together or pass data between concurrent tasks without saving files to disk.