named pipe

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

named pipe

   <operating system> A {Unix} {pipe} with a {filename} created
   using the "{mknod}" command.  Named pipes allow unrelated
   processes to communicate with each other whereas the normal
   (un-named) kind can only be used by processes which are parent
   and child or siblings ({fork}ed from the same parent).

   (1996-12-01)