Named-pipe reading timeout
c++, named-pipes, timeout, windows
Solution
You cannot use SetCommTimeouts with named pipes. If you want timeouts, you will have to use Async I/O and implement the timeout yourself using `CancelIo` or `CancelIoEx`
Problem
I'm trying to set a timeout to the reading operation of my named pipe. In order to read from the named pipe, I'm using the `ReadFile` function. I read that a timeout can be set for this function with the `SetCommTimeouts` function but when I try to use it, I get system error 1: "Incorrect function". Here is my code (this is the client side): ``` m_pipe = CreateFileA(pipeName, // pipe name GENERIC_READ | // read and write access GENERIC_WRITE, 0, // no sharing NULL, // default security attributes OPEN_EXISTING, // opens existing pipe 0, // default attributes NULL); // no template file if (m_pipe != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) { DWORD mode = PIPE_READMODE_MESSAGE | PIPE_WAIT; ok = SetNamedPipeHandleState(m_pipe, &mode, NULL, NULL); COMMTIMEOUTS cto; cto.ReadTotalTimeoutConstant = 1000; BOOL time = SetCommTimeouts(m_pipe, &cto); } ``` Am I doing something wrong or the `SetCommTimeouts` method is not supposed to be used with pipes? Is there any other way to get a reading timeout?