File Stream Terminal
In computing, a "file" is a fundamental Input/Output (IO) primitive offered by operating systems, representing an abstract device that supports standardized read and write operations. Beyond physical files on disk, this abstraction includes various IO endpoints such as named pipes (FIFOs in UNIX), windows mailslots, serial ports, device devices and other objects accessible via a filesystem names. The File Stream plugin facilitates direct interactions with these file-like objects.
What Makes File Stream so Great?
Windows Named Pipe Communications
File Stream facilitates client-side interactions with named pipes, making it an effective tool for testing and debugging inter-process communications. File Stream can be used to emulate the client side of named-pipe-based protocols. This includes tasks such as sending commands to services, connecting to kernel drivers to read log messages, or observing responses from pipe servers. This makes it especially useful in scenarios where developers or testers need to simulate or monitor named pipe communications in server-client or inter-service setups.
Windows Mailslot Communications
The plugin allows developers to easily utilize mailslots for lightweight, broadcast-style communication across Windows-based applications. This feature facilitates quick and simple messaging to multiple recipients simultaneously, making it ideal for status updates, notifications, and inter-application messaging when immediate delivery and minimal overhead are priorities.
Custom Device Driver Interaction
The plugin allows direct interaction with custom device drivers, providing a straightforward method for communicating with specialized hardware or software components. This functionality streamlines the process of sending commands, receiving status updates, and exchanging data with custom or proprietary drivers.
Session Data Dumping
File Stream offers robust capabilities for capturing and storing all data flowing through a connection directly onto disk files. This feature is particularly valuable for purposes such as logging detailed transaction data, debugging communications, forensic analysis, and session linking, providing developers and system administrators with powerful tools for monitoring, troubleshooting, and auditing communication sessions.
Powerful & Beautiful Logging Engine
The Ninja Scroll logging engine is the heart of IO Ninja! It offers many unique and useful features you won't find in other file stream terminals, such as interleaving binary data with informational messages for a clear timeline of events, switching between hex-view and plain-text view of binary data, a regex markup engine for highlighting data based on regular expressions, and many others!
Getting Started
Step 1. Start a Session
Begin by launching a File Stream session.
Step 2. Enter a File Name.
Enter the name of your file, e.g. a pipe or mailslot into the "File:" field.
Step 3. Set Access
Set the file access setting from the "Access:" dropdown menu.
Step 4. Open File
Press the "Open" button to the right of the "File:" and "Access:" fields.
Step 5. Transmit Messages
Communicate with the file as required using the Transmit pane.
Documentation
See Also
| Plugin | Relevance |
|---|---|
 Pipe Monitor | Allows monitoring of pipe communications. |
 Named Pipe Server Terminal | Allows creating named pipe servers. |
 Mailslot Terminal | Create a server-side maillsot, which clients can send messages to. |
 Mailslot Monitor | Allows monitoring of mailslots. |
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