Prevent Named Pipes Conflict

Question

We have a .NET program that uses WCF to listen for communication from another process. We used named pipes.

ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(
  typeof(Something),
  new Uri[]
    {
        new Uri("net.pipe://localhost")
    });
host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(ISomething), new NetNamedPipeBinding(), "Something");
host.Open();

The code worked great until a third party .NET program was installed. Now the open fails with a message of "Cannot listen on pipe name 'net.pipe://localhost/' because another pipe endpoint is already listening on that name."

My assumption is that the other program is already using named pipes. Is there a workaround or can only one program on a computer use named pipes? I get the impression from other questions that you can set a "name" for a pipe so it doens't conflict with other processes, how do you do that?

Can use Handle.exe from [SysInternals](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx) to find out what application is using currently using your named pipe. Command "Handle.exe net.pipe:". See [Rodney Viana's post](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rodneyviana/archive/2011/03/22/named-pipes-in-wcf-are-named-but-not-by-you-and-how-to-find-the-actual-windows-object-name.aspx) — mcdon, Dec 04 '13 at 15:52

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 27 '12 at 02:20

15

You can use multiple named pipes at a time. Take a look at Juval Lowy's ServiceModelEx from his book Programming WCF Services. You will see when he creates named pipes, he uses code that looks something like:

Uri baseAddress = new Uri("net.pipe://localhost/" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString());

Which should avoid name conflicts.

edited Mar 27 '12 at 02:20

makerofthings7

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answered Jan 22 '10 at 15:24

AshtonKJ

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But how does the client know the server address if it is generated on the run? – IneedHelp Jul 12 '15 at 13:13
You may pass it as a parameter to the client or write it in the registry or put it in a (maybe temporary) settings file. – beppe9000 Nov 21 '16 at 13:39

Prevent Named Pipes Conflict

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