C# – Number of Clients that can connect to a Named Pipe

Try this before ReadFile :

BOOL WINAPI PeekNamedPipe(
  __in       HANDLE hNamedPipe,
  __out_opt  LPVOID lpBuffer,
  __in       DWORD nBufferSize,
  __out_opt  LPDWORD lpBytesRead,
  __out_opt  LPDWORD lpTotalBytesAvail,
  __out_opt  LPDWORD lpBytesLeftThisMessage
);

if(TotalBytesAvail > 0)
  ReadFile(....);

-AV-

The problem is that you've left out ConnectNamedPipe(), which should be always be called after CreateNamedPipe() or DisconnectNamedPipe() but before attempting any I/O.

If you don't want to block while waiting for a client to connect, you can create the pipe in asynchronous I/O mode, in which case the call to ConnectNamedPipe() requires an event object which will be set when a client connects. Alternatively, you can set PIPE_NOWAIT and call ConnectNamedPipe() periodically until it succeeds, but this is a legacy feature and its use is discouraged. (In most situations using an event object will also be significantly more efficient than polling.)

As you've discovered, Windows does allow you to get away without the call to ConnectNamedPipe() but since this behaviour is undocumented it should probably be avoided. Similarly, the fact that calling ConnectNamedPipe() without waiting for it to succeed resets the connection state of the pipe is undocumented and should not be depended upon.

As requested, here's some real-world code to demonstrate the use of the server end of a pipe. This code was taken from a GUI application, so it uses asynchronous I/O, but it should be noted that it only talks to one client at a time. (It could however be run in multiple threads with only minor modifications.)

void wait_for_object(HANDLE object)
{
  DWORD dw;
  MSG msg;

  for (;;) 
  {
    dw = MsgWaitForMultipleObjectsEx(1, &object, INFINITE, QS_ALLINPUT, 0);

    if (dw == WAIT_OBJECT_0) break;
    if (dw == WAIT_OBJECT_0 + 1) 
    {
      while (PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_REMOVE)) DispatchMessage(&msg);
      continue;
    }
    srvfail(L"sleep() messageloop", GetLastError());
  }
}

HANDLE server_pipe;
HANDLE io_event;

void pipe_connection(void)
{
    OVERLAPPED overlapped;
    DWORD dw, err;

    SecureZeroMemory(&overlapped, sizeof(overlapped));
    overlapped.hEvent = io_event;

    if (!ReadFile(server_pipe, input_buffer, sizeof(input_buffer) - 1, NULL, &overlapped))
    {
        err = GetLastError();
        if (err == ERROR_IO_PENDING)
        {
            wait_for_object(io_event);
            if (!GetOverlappedResult(server_pipe, &overlapped, &dw, FALSE)) 
            {
                srvfail(L"Read from pipe failed asynchronously.", GetLastError());
            }
        }
        else
        {
            srvfail(L"Read from pipe failed synchronously.", GetLastError());
        }
    }
    else
    {
        if (!GetOverlappedResult(server_pipe, &overlapped, &dw, FALSE)) 
        {
            srvfail(L"GetOverlappedResult failed reading from pipe.", GetLastError());
        }
    }

    input_buffer[dw] = '\0';

    process_command();

    if (!WriteFile(server_pipe, &output_struct, 
        ((char *)&output_struct.output_string - (char *)&output_struct) + output_struct.string_length, 
        NULL, &overlapped))
    {
        err = GetLastError();
        if (err == ERROR_IO_PENDING)
        {
            wait_for_object(io_event);
            if (!GetOverlappedResult(server_pipe, &overlapped, &dw, FALSE)) 
            {
                srvfail(L"Write to pipe failed asynchronously.", GetLastError());
            }
        }
        else
        {
            srvfail(L"Write to pipe failed synchronously.", GetLastError());
        }
    }
    else
    {
        if (!GetOverlappedResult(server_pipe, &overlapped, &dw, FALSE)) 
        {
            srvfail(L"GetOverlappedResult failed writing to pipe.", GetLastError());
        }
    }

    if (!FlushFileBuffers(server_pipe)) srvfail(L"FlushFileBuffers failed.", GetLastError());
    if (!DisconnectNamedPipe(server_pipe)) srvfail(L"DisconnectNamedPipe failed.", GetLastError());
}

void server(void)
{
    OVERLAPPED overlapped;
    DWORD err, dw; 

    // Create the named pipe

    server_pipe = CreateNamedPipe(pipe_name, PIPE_ACCESS_DUPLEX | FILE_FLAG_FIRST_PIPE_INSTANCE | FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED, PIPE_TYPE_MESSAGE | PIPE_READMODE_MESSAGE, 1, buffer_size, buffer_size, 0, NULL);
    if (server_pipe == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) srvfail(L"CreateNamedPipe failed.", GetLastError());

    // Wait for connections

    io_event = CreateEvent(NULL, FALSE, FALSE, NULL);
    if (io_event == NULL) srvfail(L"CreateEvent(io_event) failed.", GetLastError());

    for (;;)
    {
        SecureZeroMemory(&overlapped, sizeof(overlapped));
        overlapped.hEvent = io_event;

        if (!ConnectNamedPipe(server_pipe, &overlapped))
        {
            err = GetLastError();
            if (err == ERROR_PIPE_CONNECTED)
            {
                pipe_connection();
            }
            else if (err == ERROR_IO_PENDING)
            {
                wait_for_object(io_event);
                if (!GetOverlappedResult(server_pipe, &overlapped, &dw, FALSE)) 
                {
                    srvfail(L"Pipe connection failed asynchronously.", GetLastError());
                }
                pipe_connection();
            }
            else
            {
                srvfail(L"Pipe connection failed synchronously.", GetLastError());
            }
        }
        else
        {
            if (!GetOverlappedResult(server_pipe, &overlapped, &dw, FALSE)) 
            {
                srvfail(L"GetOverlappedResult failed connecting pipe.", GetLastError());
            }
            pipe_connection();
        }
    }
}

(This code has been edited down from the original to remove extraneous logic. I haven't tried compiling the edited version, so there may be some minor problems.)