Sending pipe arguments to a C# application

Question

I need to build an simple console application that accepts a pipe as input. We are running Windows Server 2012. The data is coming from another application that is going to "pipe" the input to this application. I have an understanding of pipes from a Linux perspective but do not understand them well from a Windows perspective.

My best guess is that I need to send input to my application like this: C:\app.exe < test.txt

When using the '<' character my current understanding is that it converts test.txt to a stream and will pass in a pointer.

My question is, can anyone give me an example of how to receive a stream pointer, or something equivalent to a pipe in windows in my application, so that I can read the input?

possible duplicate of [C# Console receive input with pipe](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/199528/c-sharp-console-receive-input-with-pipe) — Mike Perrenoud, Mar 20 '13 at 14:02
@MichaelPerrenoud I just found that post, and yes this works for both using a pipe '|' and the file input character ' — Payson Welch, Mar 20 '13 at 14:05

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 20 '13 at 14:08

When you use < and > with an application, the standard input and output streams (screen/keyboard interface) is replaced by a file stream.

You can use the regular Console.Read and Console.ReadLine commands to read from the stream specified by the < directive, or use Console.In which is a TextReader.

Similarly Console.Write and Console.WriteLine can be used to write to the output stream specified by the > directive, or Console.Out which is a TextWriter.

If you use the | pipe directive, for example myapp.exe | sort, the output stream of the first program goes into the input stream of the next program.

Sending pipe arguments to a C# application

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