H.Formatters 2.0.21

Async Named Pipe Wrapper for .NET Standard 2.0

A simple, easy to use, strongly-typed, async wrapper around .NET named pipes.

Features

• Create named pipe servers that can handle multiple client connections simultaneously.
• Send strongly-typed messages between clients and servers: any serializable .NET object can be sent over a pipe and will be automatically serialized/deserialized, including cyclical references and complex object graphs.
• Async
• Requires .NET Standard 2.0
• Supports large messages - up to 300 MiB.
• Server restart automatically
• Automatically wait for the release of the pipe for the server, if it is already in use
• Automatically waiting for a server pipe creating when client connecting
• Automatic reconnect with a given interval and at each client.WriteAsync, if necessary
• Supports variable formatters, default - BinaryFormatter which uses System.Runtime.Serialization.BinaryFormatter inside
• Also available ready formatters in separate nuget packages: H.Formatters.Newtonsoft.Json, H.Formatters.System.Text.Json and H.Formatters.Ceras
• Supports PipeAccessRule's(see H.Pipes.AccessControl nuget package) or more complex code to access using the PipeServer.PipeStreamInitializeAction property

Nuget

// All clients and servers that do not need support AccessControl.
Install-Package H.Pipes

// Servers that need support AccessControl.
Install-Package H.Pipes.AccessControl

// If you want to transfer any data that can be serialized/deserialized in json using Newtonsoft.Json.
Install-Package H.Formatters.Newtonsoft.Json

// If you want to transfer any data that can be serialized/deserialized in json using System.Text.Json.
Install-Package H.Formatters.System.Text.Json

// If you want to transfer any data that can be serialized/deserialized in binary using Ceras.
Install-Package H.Formatters.Ceras

Usage

Server:

await using var server = new PipeServer<MyMessage>(pipeName);
server.ClientConnected += async (o, args) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Client {args.Connection.PipeName} is now connected!");

    await args.Connection.WriteAsync(new MyMessage
    {
        Text = "Welcome!"
    });
};
server.ClientDisconnected += (o, args) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Client {args.Connection.PipeName} disconnected");
};
server.MessageReceived += (sender, args) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Client {args.Connection.PipeName} says: {args.Message}");
};
server.ExceptionOccurred += (o, args) => OnExceptionOccurred(args.Exception);

await server.StartAsync();

await Task.Delay(Timeout.InfiniteTimeSpan);

P.S. To use the server inside the WinForms application, use Task.Run(). This creates a new thread for it.

Client:

await using var client = new PipeClient<MyMessage>(pipeName);
client.MessageReceived += (o, args) => Console.WriteLine("MessageReceived: " + args.Message);
client.Disconnected += (o, args) => Console.WriteLine("Disconnected from server");
client.Connected += (o, args) => Console.WriteLine("Connected to server");
client.ExceptionOccurred += (o, args) => OnExceptionOccurred(args.Exception);

await client.ConnectAsync();

await client.WriteAsync(new MyMessage
{
    Text = "Hello!",
});

await Task.Delay(Timeout.InfiniteTimeSpan);

Custom Formatters

Since BinaryFormatter is used by default, you should check out this article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/serialization/binaryformatter-security-guide

Install-Package H.Formatters.Newtonsoft.Json
Install-Package H.Formatters.System.Text.Json
Install-Package H.Formatters.Ceras

using H.Formatters;

await using var server = new PipeServer<MyMessage>(pipeName, formatter: new NewtonsoftJsonFormatter());
await using var client = new PipeClient<MyMessage>(pipeName, formatter: new NewtonsoftJsonFormatter());

Access Control

Install-Package H.Pipes.AccessControl

using System.IO.Pipes;
using H.Pipes.AccessControl;

await using var server = new PipeServer<string>(pipeName);

// You can set PipeSecurity
var pipeSecurity = new PipeSecurity();
pipeSecurity.AddAccessRule(new PipeAccessRule(new SecurityIdentifier(WellKnownSidType.BuiltinUsersSid, null), PipeAccessRights.ReadWrite, AccessControlType.Allow));

server.SetPipeSecurity(pipeSecurity);

// or just add AccessRule's (Please be careful, the server will only consider AccessRules from the last call AddAccessRules())
server.AddAccessRules(new PipeAccessRule(new SecurityIdentifier(WellKnownSidType.BuiltinUsersSid, null), PipeAccessRights.ReadWrite, AccessControlType.Allow));

// or just
server.AllowUsersReadWrite();

Encryption

Install-Package H.Formatters.Inferno

using H.Formatters;

await using var server = new PipeServer<MyMessage>(pipeName, formatter: new SystemTextJsonFormatter());
server.EnableEncryption();

await using var client = new PipeClient<MyMessage>(pipeName, formatter: new SystemTextJsonFormatter());
client.EnableEncryption();

await client.ConnectAsync(source.Token).ConfigureAwait(false);
// Waits for key exchange.
await client.Connection!.WaitExchangeAsync();

server.ClientConnected += async (_, args) =>
{
    // Waits for key exchange.
    await args.Connection.WaitExchangeAsync();

    await args.Connection.WriteAsync(new MyMessage
    {
        Text = "Welcome!"
    }, source.Token).ConfigureAwait(false);
};

GetImpersonationUserName

server.ClientConnected += async (o, args) =>
{
    var name = args.Connection.GetImpersonationUserName();

    Console.WriteLine($"Client {name} is now connected!");
};

Inter-process communication

I recommend that you take a look at my other library if you plan on doing IPC. It is based on this library, but provides an IPC implementation based on C# interfaces. It supports remote method invocation, asynchronous methods, cancellation via CancellationToken, events, and so on.

Contacts

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