Viaduct is a library for establishing a duplex communication channel between a parent and child process, using unnamed pipes.

Example

Shared library

```rs

[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]

pub enum ExampleRpc { Cow, Pig, Horse }

[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]

pub enum ExampleRequest { DoAFrontflip, DoABackflip, }

[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, PartialEq, Eq)]

pub struct FrontflipError;

[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, PartialEq, Eq)]

pub struct BackflipError; ```

Parent process

```rust let child = std::process::Command::new("child.exe"); let ((tx, rx), mut child) = viaduct::ViaductBuilder::parent(child).unwrap().build().unwrap();

std::thread::spawn(move || { rx.run( |rpc: ExampleRpc| match rpc { ExampleRpc::Cow => println!("Moo"), ExampleRpc::Pig => println!("Oink"), ExampleRpc::Horse => println!("Neigh"), },

    |request: ExampleRequest, tx| match request {
        ExampleRequest::DoAFrontflip => {
            println!("Doing a frontflip!");
            tx.respond(Ok::<_, FrontflipError>(()))
        },

        ExampleRequest::DoABackflip => {
            println!("Doing a backflip!");
            tx.respond(Ok::<_, BackflipError>(()))
        },
    },
).unwrap();

});

tx.rpc(ExampleRpc::Cow).unwrap(); tx.rpc(ExampleRpc::Pig).unwrap(); tx.rpc(ExampleRpc::Horse).unwrap();

let response: Result<(), FrontflipError> = tx.request(ExampleRequest::DoAFrontflip).unwrap(); assert_eq!(response, Ok(())); ```

Child process

```rust let (tx, rx) = unsafe { viaduct::ViaductBuilder::child() }.unwrap();

std::thread::spawn(move || { rx.run( |rpc: ExampleRpc| match rpc { ExampleRpc::Cow => println!("Moo"), ExampleRpc::Pig => println!("Oink"), ExampleRpc::Horse => println!("Neigh"), },

    |request: ExampleRequest, tx| match request {
        ExampleRequest::DoAFrontflip => {
            println!("Doing a frontflip!");
            tx.respond(Ok::<_, FrontflipError>(()))
        },

        ExampleRequest::DoABackflip => {
            println!("Doing a backflip!");
            tx.respond(Ok::<_, BackflipError>(()))
        },
    },
).unwrap();

});

tx.rpc(ExampleRpc::Horse).unwrap(); tx.rpc(ExampleRpc::Pig).unwrap(); tx.rpc(ExampleRpc::Cow).unwrap();

let response: Result<(), BackflipError> = tx.request(ExampleRequest::DoABackflip).unwrap(); assert_eq!(response, Ok(())); ```

Use Cases

Viaduct was designed for separating user interface from application logic in a cross-platform manner.

For example, an application may want to run a GUI in a separate process from the application logic, for modularity or performance reasons.

Viaduct allows for applications like this to communicate between these processes in a natural way, without having to manually implement IPC machinery & synchronization.

Usage

Check out the documentation for usage information.

License

Viaduct is licensed under the MIT license or the Apache License v2.0, at your choice.