PipeMethodCalls

Lightweight .NET Standard 2.0 library to use method calls over named and anonymous pipes for IPC. Supports two-way communication with callbacks.

Calls from client to server

var pipeServer = new PipeServer<IAdder>(
    new NetJsonPipeSerializer(),
    "mypipe",
    () => new Adder());
await pipeServer.WaitForConnectionAsync();

var pipeClient = new PipeClient<IAdder>(new NetJsonPipeSerializer(), "mypipe");
await pipeClient.ConnectAsync();
int result = await pipeClient.InvokeAsync(adder => adder.AddNumbers(1, 3));

Calls both way

var pipeServer = new PipeServerWithCallback<IConcatenator, IAdder>(
    new NetJsonPipeSerializer(),
    "mypipe",
    () => new Adder());
await pipeServer.WaitForConnectionAsync();
string concatResult = await pipeServer.InvokeAsync(c => c.Concatenate("a", "b"));

var pipeClient = new PipeClientWithCallback<IAdder, IConcatenator>(
    new NetJsonPipeSerializer(),
    "mypipe",
    () => new Concatenator());
await pipeClient.ConnectAsync();
int result = await pipeClient.InvokeAsync(a => a.AddNumbers(4, 7));

About the library

This library uses named pipes to invoke method calls on a remote endpoint. The method arguments are serialized to binary and sent over the pipe.

Serialization

PipeMethodCalls supports customizable serialization logic through IPipeSerializer. You've got two options:

Use a pre-built serializer
- new NetJsonPipeSerializer() from the PipeMethodCalls.NetJson package. That uses the System.Text.Json serializer that's built into .NET.
- new MessagePackPipeSerializer() from the PipeMethodCalls.MessagePack package. That uses the MessagePack-CSharp serializer, which has excellent performance.
Plug in your own implementation of IPipeSerializer. Refer to the NetJsonPipeSerializer code for an example of how to do this.

Open an issue or pull request if you'd like to see more built-in serializers.

Features

100% asynchronous communication with .ConfigureAwait(false) to minimize context switches and reduce thread use
45KB with no built-in dependencies
Invoking async methods
Passing and returning complex types with pluggable JSON or binary serialization
Interleaved or multiple simultaneous calls
Throwing exceptions
CancellationToken support
Works on Windows, Linux and MacOS

Not supported

Methods with out and ref parameters
Properties
Method overloads