Create Named Pipe C++ Windows

You cannot create a named pipe by calling CreateFile(..).

Have a look at the pipe examples of the MSDN. Since these examples are quite complex I've quickly written a VERY simple named pipe server and client.

int main(void){    HANDLE hPipe;    char buffer[1024];    DWORD dwRead;    hPipe = CreateNamedPipe(TEXT("\\\\.\\pipe\\Pipe"),                            PIPE_ACCESS_DUPLEX,                            PIPE_TYPE_BYTE | PIPE_READMODE_BYTE | PIPE_WAIT,   // FILE_FLAG_FIRST_PIPE_INSTANCE is not needed but forces CreateNamedPipe(..) to fail if the pipe already exists...                            1,                            1024 * 16,                            1024 * 16,                            NMPWAIT_USE_DEFAULT_WAIT,                            NULL);    while (hPipe != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)    {        if (ConnectNamedPipe(hPipe, NULL) != FALSE)   // wait for someone to connect to the pipe        {            while (ReadFile(hPipe, buffer, sizeof(buffer) - 1, &dwRead, NULL) != FALSE)            {                /* add terminating zero */                buffer[dwRead] = '\0';                /* do something with data in buffer */                printf("%s", buffer);            }        }        DisconnectNamedPipe(hPipe);    }    return 0;}

And here is the client code:

int main(void){    HANDLE hPipe;    DWORD dwWritten;    hPipe = CreateFile(TEXT("\\\\.\\pipe\\Pipe"),                        GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE,                        0,                       NULL,                       OPEN_EXISTING,                       0,                       NULL);    if (hPipe != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)    {        WriteFile(hPipe,                  "Hello Pipe\n",                  12,   // = length of string + terminating '\0' !!!                  &dwWritten,                  NULL);        CloseHandle(hPipe);    }    return (0);}

You should replace the name of the pipe TEXT("\\\\.\\pipe\\Pipe") by a #define which is located in a commonly used header file.