PS> copying the file to disk. And just to make it easy I 
 PS> could make sure all the 
 PS> data is waiting in the pipe before reading, that way I 
 PS> wouldn't have to worry 
 PS> about the server being slower than the client (ie, 
 PS> trying to read a 10 byte 
 PS> data structure, and there's only 7 bytes in the pipe...).

You never have to be concerned with that scenario if you are using a
"MASSAGE MODE PIPE" (as opposed to a "BYTE MODE PIPE").
  This was the whole intent of the message mode named pipe,  and one of the
features that makes named pipes so beautiful.

The only concern, due to a bug in OS/2 (that IBM would rather call a
limitation) is that the message must not cross a 64k boundary.


--- Maximus/2 3.00