PipeDream

.NET Standard IPC/RPC

PipeDream is a lightweight (and note: partially incomplete) IPC/RCP library that leverages named pipes.

Getting started is fairly easy -- for a quick example see below.

For a full example, check out the Tests directory. In order to run the tests, be sure to build the server executables (Build > Build Solution), and run the project ClientTest.

Client Code:

string pipeName = "myPipeName";
IMySharedInterface myRemoteInterface = PipeDream.ClientInitialize<IMySharedInterface>(pipeName);
string fullName = myRemoteInterface.AppendLastName("Sarah");

Server Code:

// Shared interface between the client and server
public interface IMySharedInterface
{
    string AppendLastName(string name);
}

// Implementation of the shared interface
class SharedInterfaceImpl : IMySharedInterface
{
    public string AppendLastName(string name)
    {
        return name + " " + "Smith";
    }
}

// Somewhere in the server code:
string pipeName = "myPipeName";
IMySharedInterface instance = new SharedInterfaceImpl();
PipeDream.ServerInitialize<IMySharedInterface>(instance, pipeName);

Advanced Topics:

Serializing non-primitive objects simply requires annotating the class with Serializeable attributes.

Known Issues:

Currently this does not support interfaces with the ref or out keywords. Also, this does not support properties on interfaces.

There is no mechanism in place yet for handling failed calls. This code currently assumes the server is always running, and will likely deadlock if the server is not present.

How it works:

For client initialization, PipeDream instantiates a dummy class that mocks the provided interface (ie IMySharedInterface in the example above). A dynamic proxy is then created on the mocked object to intercept method calls. The method body is filled with the following (pseudo-code):

SerializeArgsToPipe();
response = DeserializeResponseFromPipe();
return response;

The server wraps the implementation object, and spins off a new thread that runs the following (pseudo-code):

while (true)
{
    DeserializeArgsFromPipe();
    result = callOriginalMethod();
    SerializeResponseToPipe();
}