Can you poll a pipe?

Bruce Adler bruce at segue.segue.com
Thu Nov 1 07:30:16 AEST 1990


In the manual "386/ix TCP/IP Programmer's Supplement - Version 1.1.0" 
(which is found within the book titled "386/ix TCP/IP Guide") it says at 
the bottom of page 21: 

	"On the 386/ix Operating System, select essentially provides the
	same functions as the poll system call but uses a different syntax.
	select has the same restrictions as poll, but under 386/ix,
	poll has been extended to support non-STREAMS file descriptors.
	In particular, pipes, pty, and tty devices are supported."

I suspect the 1.2 version of the manual says the same thing, but I will 
verify this later today.  

If, as you say, poll() and select() don't work identically on all 
releases of INTERACTIVE UNIX/386 3.2.x then it's clearly a bug.  The 
only questions in my mind are: 

        1.  Does select have the same extensions as poll (probably but 
        the above paragraph is ambiguous)?  
        
        2.  Does the console qualify as a tty type device?
        
        3.  Is the phrase "tty devices" intended to include all the 
        various brands of multi-port serial cards?  
-- 
bruce at segue.com, ism.isc.com!segue!bruce, aero.org!segue!bruce



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