Pipe: How the System Call that Ties Unix Together Came About

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://thenewstack.io/pipe-how-the-system-call-that-ties-unix-together-came-about/

It's an everyday command in the life of developers, sysadmins, and Unix lovers everywhere. So it's remarkable to remember that Unix's pipe command was implemented in a single day, representing not only a great moment in computing history, but also a uniquely important moment for its profound impact on the culture of Unix.

And its[sic] change the way we programmed ever since.

[...] In fact, it was more than 50 years ago that Doug McIlroy, who headed Bell Labs' famous "Computing Techniques Research Department" from 1965 through 1986, wrote, "We should have some ways of coupling programs like garden hose." This was 1964 - he'd pecked the words out on a typewriter - saying this method would let programmers "screw in another segment when it becomes necessary to massage data in another way."

[...] McIlroy acknowledged that pipes "was one of the only places where I very nearly exerted managerial control over Unix, was pushing for those things." McIlroy remembered that yes, he'd kept bringing it up internally at various points over the next nine years, until finally one day in 1973, Ken Thompson had said "I'm going to do it."

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