How to unblock ConnectNamedPipe and ReadFile? [C#]

[Shaitan00]

I have a class (NamedPipeManager) which has a thread (PipeThread) that waits for a NamedPipe connection using (ConnectNamedPipe) and then reads (ReadFile) - these are blocking calls (not-overlapped) - however there comes a point when I want to unblock them - for example when the calling class tries to stop the NamedPipeManager...

How can I interupt it? Using Thread.abort? Thread.interrupt? Is there a proper way to handle this?
Refer to the code below which illustrates my current situation


main()
{
NamedPipeManager np = new NamedPipeManager();
... do stuff ...
... do stuff ...
np.Stop(); // at this point I want to stop waiting on a connection
}


class NamedPipeManager
{
private Thread PipeThread;

public NamedPipeManager
{
PipeThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ManagePipes));
PipeThread.IsBackground = true;
PipeThread.Name = "NamedPipe Manager";
PipeThread.Start();
}

private void ManagePipes()
{
handle = CreateNamedPipe(..., PIPE_WAIT, ...);
ConnectNamedPipe(handle, null); // this is the BLOCKING call waiting for client connection

ReadFile(....); // this is the BLOCKING call to readfile after a connection has been established
}


public void Stop()
{
/// This is where I need to do my magic
/// But somehow I need to stop PipeThread
PipeThread.abort(); //?? my gut tells me this is bad
}
};


So, in function Stop() - how would I gracefully unblock the call to ConnectNamedPipe(...) or ReadFile(...)?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,

[vcdebugger]

check if there are any parameters in the ConnectNamedPipe or ReadFile() function to UNBLOCK those calls...

[darwen]

Closing the handle will cause the methods to exit with an error.

How are you creating the pipe ? If you're using this (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365150(VS.85).aspx) windows API call it accepts a parameter as to whether you want the pipe to be blocking or non-blocking.

There'a also an example of a multi-threaded pipe server in C++ here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365588(VS.85).aspx).

Darwen.

[denizkartan]

Is there a general solution to 'release the blocking code in a thread' problem?
I mean, in a worker thread I am using someObject.SomeMethod(), which blocks and is the only option I can use, and I want to stop that worker thread anytime from my main thread; even if the worker thread is blocked at the point where someObject.SomeMethod() is called.