First, we should talk about pipes. A pipe in Windows is simply a method of communication, often between process. The SDK defines a pipe as "a communication conduit with two ends; a process with a handle to one end can communicate with a process having a handle to the other end." In our case, we are using "anonymous" pipes, one-way pipes that "transfer data between a parent process and a child process or between two child processes of the same parent process." It's easiest to imagine a pipe as its namesake. An actual pipe running between processes that can carry data.

We are using anonymous pipes because the console app we are spawning is a child process. We use the CreatePipe function which will create an anonymous pipe and return a read handle and a write handle. We will create two pipes, on for stdin and one for stdout. We will then monitor the read end of the stdout pipe to check for display on our child process. Every time there is something availabe for reading, we will display it in our app. Consequently, we check for input in our app and send it off to the write end of the stdin pipe.

//------------Sample using CreateProcess and Anonymous Pipes-----------------
//---------------------childspawn.cpp----------------------------------------
//---------------------use freely--------------------------------------------
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <string.h>
#pragma hdrstop
#include <condefs.h>

#define bzero(a) memset(a,0,sizeof(a)) //easier -- shortcut

bool IsWinNT()  //check if we're running NT
{
  OSVERSIONINFO osv;
  osv.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(osv);
  GetVersionEx(&osv);
  return (osv.dwPlatformId == VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT);
}

void ErrorMessage(char *str)  //display detailed error info
{
  LPVOID msg;
  FormatMessage(
    FORMAT_MESSAGE_ALLOCATE_BUFFER | FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM,
    NULL,
    GetLastError(),
    MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT), // Default language
    (LPTSTR) &msg,
    0,
    NULL
  );
  printf("%s: %s\n",str,msg);
  LocalFree(msg);
}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
void main()
{
  char buf[1024];           //i/o buffer

  STARTUPINFO si;
  SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES sa;
  SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR sd;               //security information for pipes
  PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
  HANDLE newstdin,newstdout,read_stdout,write_stdin;  //pipe handles

  if (IsWinNT())        //initialize security descriptor (Windows NT)
  {
    InitializeSecurityDescriptor(&sd,SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR_REVISION);
    SetSecurityDescriptorDacl(&sd, true, NULL, false);
    sa.lpSecurityDescriptor = &sd;
  }
  else sa.lpSecurityDescriptor = NULL;
  sa.nLength = sizeof(SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES);
  sa.bInheritHandle = true;         //allow inheritable handles

  if (!CreatePipe(&newstdin,&write_stdin,&sa,0))   //create stdin pipe
  {
    ErrorMessage("CreatePipe");
    getch();
    return;
  }
  if (!CreatePipe(&read_stdout,&newstdout,&sa,0))  //create stdout pipe
  {
    ErrorMessage("CreatePipe");
    getch();
    CloseHandle(newstdin);
    CloseHandle(write_stdin);
    return;
  }

  GetStartupInfo(&si);      //set startupinfo for the spawned process
  /*
  The dwFlags member tells CreateProcess how to make the process.
  STARTF_USESTDHANDLES validates the hStd* members. STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW
  validates the wShowWindow member.
  */
  si.dwFlags = STARTF_USESTDHANDLES|STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
  si.wShowWindow = SW_HIDE;
  si.hStdOutput = newstdout;
  si.hStdError = newstdout;     //set the new handles for the child process
  si.hStdInput = newstdin;
  char app_spawn[] = "d:\\winnt\\system32\\cmd.exe"; //sample, modify for your
                                                     //system

  //spawn the child process
  if (!CreateProcess(app_spawn,NULL,NULL,NULL,TRUE,CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE,
                     NULL,NULL,&si,&pi))
  {
    ErrorMessage("CreateProcess");
    getch();
    CloseHandle(newstdin);
    CloseHandle(newstdout);
    CloseHandle(read_stdout);
    CloseHandle(write_stdin);
    return;
  }

  unsigned long exit=0;  //process exit code
  unsigned long bread;   //bytes read
  unsigned long avail;   //bytes available

  bzero(buf);
  for(;;)      //main program loop
  {
    GetExitCodeProcess(pi.hProcess,&exit);      //while the process is running
    if (exit != STILL_ACTIVE)
      break;
    PeekNamedPipe(read_stdout,buf,1023,&bread,&avail,NULL);
    //check to see if there is any data to read from stdout
    if (bread != 0)
    {
      bzero(buf);
      if (avail > 1023)
      {
        while (bread >= 1023)
        {
          ReadFile(read_stdout,buf,1023,&bread,NULL);  //read the stdout pipe
          printf("%s",buf);
          bzero(buf);
        }
      }
      else {
        ReadFile(read_stdout,buf,1023,&bread,NULL);
        printf("%s",buf);
      }
    }
    if (kbhit())      //check for user input.
    {
      bzero(buf);
      *buf = (char)getche();
      //printf("%c",*buf);
      WriteFile(write_stdin,buf,1,&bread,NULL); //send it to stdin
      if (*buf == '\r') {
        *buf = '\n';
        printf("%c",*buf);
        WriteFile(write_stdin,buf,1,&bread,NULL); //send an extra newline char,
                                                  //if necessary
      }
    }
  }
  CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
  CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
  CloseHandle(newstdin);            //clean stuff up
  CloseHandle(newstdout);
  CloseHandle(read_stdout);
  CloseHandle(write_stdin);
}
//----------------------------EOF--------------------------------------------
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------