CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowswinapipipe
Doug T.
Doug T.

Reputation: 65619

How can I get a list of all open named pipes in Windows?

Is there an easy way to test whether your named pipe is working correctly? I want to make sure that the data I'm sending from my app is actually being sent. Is there a quick and easy way to get a list of all the named pipes?

Upvotes: 126

Views: 177267

Answers (8)

Daynew
Daynew

Reputation: 551

I stumbled across a feature in Chrome that will list out all open named pipes by navigating to file://.//pipe//

Since I can't seem to find any reference to this and it has been very helpful to me, I thought I might share.

Upvotes: 43

Andrew Shepherd
Andrew Shepherd

Reputation: 45252

In the Windows Powershell console, type

[System.IO.Directory]::GetFiles("\\.\\pipe\\")
If your OS version is greater than Windows 7, you can also type 
get-childitem \\.\pipe\

This returns a list of objects. If you want the name only:

(get-childitem \\.\pipe\).FullName

In Powershell 7, the second example \\.\pipe\ does not work (see this known bug), so you will have to stick to the first syntax.

Upvotes: 141

Vincent Lidou
Vincent Lidou

Reputation: 101

The second pipe was interpreted by this web site when submitted... You need two backslashes at the beginning. So make sure to use System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(@"\\.\pipe\").

Note that I have seen this function call throw an 'illegal characters in path.' exception when one of the pipes on my machine had invalid characters. PipleList.exe worked ok though, so it seems like a bug in MS's .NET code.

Upvotes: 10

Constantin Konstantinidis
Constantin Konstantinidis

Reputation: 1515

At CMD prompt:

>ver

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18362.476]

>dir \\.\pipe\\

Upvotes: 31

Omar Elsherif
Omar Elsherif

Reputation: 269

C#:

String[] listOfPipes = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(@"\\.\pipe\");

Upvotes: 20

Vincent Lidou
Vincent Lidou

Reputation: 641

Try the following instead:

String[] listOfPipes = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(@"\\.\pipe\");

Upvotes: 57

Rob Walker
Rob Walker

Reputation: 47462

You can view these with Process Explorer from sysinternals. Use the "Find -> Find Handle or DLL..." option and enter the pattern "\Device\NamedPipe\". It will show you which processes have which pipes open.

Upvotes: 124

Jay
Jay

Reputation: 541

Use pipelist.exe from Sysinternals.

Upvotes: 54

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