npipe the network/names pipe utility.

npipe provides FIFO (named pipes) to communicate with remote servers. You can invoke npipe to connect to a remote host and it will provide an "in" and one "out" file. Data placed in "in" will be transferred to the host. All data received from the remote host will be placed in out. You can use bash or other programs to evaluate the output and generate new input just by reading/writing to files.

A simple POP3 test...

npipe -h pop3.mailhost.org -p 110 -f
echo "USER myaccount" > in
echo "PASS mypassword" > in
echo "LIST" > in
cat out

out should now contain the emails you have on the server.

npipe requires no configuration but some command line arguments to work properly. Here's a list of all command line arguments you can use:

• -v: prints version and exits
• -V: enable verbose mode (print incoming/outgoing data to stdout)
• -f: forks npipe after start and prints PID to stdout
• -h [hostname]: the hostname npipe should connect to
• -p [port]: the port npipe should use to connect

• no bugs I'm aware of...feel free to find some

• only data with newlines at the end will be sent at once
• npipe waits for newlines from the host
• a binary mode ?!

I hope this small tool is useful for you. Send me a mail if you have suggestions or patches.