pipe/redirect dumb question

[jim.mcginness at att.net]

Erik Price wrote:
> Does the code that tells the reader or writer to block have to be 
> written into the application, or is that somehow built into the shell?  

It's probably best to think of this behavior as built in, provided by the OS.
The shell just provides a convenient and easy-to-use syntax for settings things
up so the OS can do its job "transparently".