A server process uses DosConnectNPipe to put a newly created named pipe into the listening state. The pipe must be in the listening state in order for a client process to gain access to the pipe by calling DosOpen.
After successfully opening the pipe and finishing its transactions, the client process calls DosClose to end its access to the pipe. The server process must acknowledge the close by calling DosDisConnectNPipe. It can then call DosConnectNPipe again to put the pipe into the listening state for the next client.
Together, DosConnectNPipe and DosDisConnectNPipe enable a server to create a named pipe and to reuse it for communication with different clients. Without these functions, the server would have to delete and re-create the pipe for each client.
Note: If multiple instances of a named pipe have been created, then each instance of the pipe must be put into the listening state before it can be opened by a client.