WinAPI C++ client detect write on anonymous pipe before reading

Question

I am writing a C++ (Windows) client console application which reads from an anonymous pipe on STDIN. I would like to be able to use my program as follows:

echo input text here | my_app.exe

and do something in the app with the text that is piped in

OR

my_app.exe

and then use some default text inside of the app instead of the input from the pipe.

I currently have code that successfully reads from the pipe on STDIN given the first situation:

#include <Windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

#define BUFSIZE 4096

int main(int argc, const char *argv[]) {
    char char_buffer[BUFSIZE]; 
    DWORD bytes_read;
    HANDLE stdin_handle;
    BOOL continue_reading;
    unsigned int required_size;
    bool read_successful = true;

    stdin_handle = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);

    if (stdin_handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
        std::cout << "Error: invalid handle value!\n\n";
    } else {
        continue_reading = true;

        while (continue_reading) { 
            continue_reading = ReadFile(stdin_handle, char_buffer, BUFSIZE,
                &bytes_read, NULL); 

            if (continue_reading) {
                if (bytes_read != 0) {
                    // Output what we have read so far
                    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < bytes_read; i++) {
                        std::cout << char_buffer[i];
                    }
                } else {
                    continue_reading = false;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

I know that my only option with anonymous pipes is to do a blocking read with ReadFile. If I understand correctly, in regard to how I am invoking it, ReadFile will continue to read from the buffer on STDIN until it detects an end of write operation on the other end of the pipe (perhapse reads some sort of "end of write" token??). I would like to know if there is some sort of "beginning write" token that will be in the buffer if something is being piped in which I can check on STDIN BEFORE I call ReadFile. If this were the case I could just skip calling ReadFile and use some default text.

If there is not a way to do this, I can always pass in a command line argument that denotes that I should not check the pipe and just use the default text (or the other way around), but I would much prefer to do it the way that I specified.

Answer 1

Look at PeekNamedPipe(). Despite its name, it works for both named and anonymous pipes.

int main(int argc, const char *argv[])
{
    char char_buffer[BUFSIZE]; 
    DWORD bytes_read;
    DWORD bytes_avail;
    DWORD dw;
    HANDLE stdin_handle;
    bool is_pipe;

    stdin_handle = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
    is_pipe = !GetConsoleMode(stdin_handle, &dw);

    if (stdin_handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
        std::cout << "Error: invalid handle value!\n\n";
    } else {
        while (1) { 
            if (is_pipe) {
                if (PeekNamedPipe(stdin_handle, NULL, 0, NULL, &bytes_avail, NULL)) {
                    if (bytes_avail == 0) {
                        Sleep(100);
                        continue;
                    }
                }
            }

            if (!ReadFile(stdin_handle, char_buffer, min(bytes_avail, BUFSIZE), &bytes_read, NULL)) {
                break; 
            }

            if (bytes_read == 0) {
                break;
            }

            // Output what we have read so far
            for (unsigned int i = 0; i < bytes_read; i++) {
                std::cout << char_buffer[i];
            }
        }
    }

    return 0;
}