--. The question raised by the OP was entirely legitimate, presented clearly, with fairly complete code (except neglecting to say what the external command was), and with reference to an earlier question by the same poster. I see no fault in it other than a failure to use <code> tags which is not the most severe crime on the book.

Moreover, there is not the slightest indication that this is a homework problem, nor is Anonymous Monk asking us to solve his or her problem from scratch, which is usually the hallmark of such questions.

I should also add some that people have genuine and valid reasons for posting anonymously, and absent any other evidence, I would not question that in this case.

Those links are great links to suggest to a person who asks vague, poorly worded, poorly formatted, code-free, etc. questions, but is inappropriate in this situation. And while it is true that there are "more than one postings available in the monastery regarding pipes" I don't get the impression you actually looked for any that relate even remotely to the OP's problem in this thread.

Update: I should clarify that this node is, in part, in response to Re^3: Closing STDIO Caused Pipe Not To Work as well.