title: Handling streamed data via pipes
body: <p>A Win32 application (the "server") is sending a continuous stream of data over a named pipe. GetNamedPipeInfo() tells me that input and output buffer sizes are automatically allocated as needed. The pipe is operating in byte mode (although it is sending data units that are bigger than 1 byte (doubles, to be precise)).</p>
  
  <p>Now, my question is this: Can I somehow verify that my application (the "client") is not missing any data when reading from the pipe? I know that those read/write operations are buffered, but I suppose the buffers will not grow indefinitely if the client doesn't fetch the data quickly enough. How do I know if I missed something? Does the server (or the pipe?) silently discard data that is not read in time by the client?</p>
  
  <p>BTW, can I rely on proper alignment of the data the client reads using ReadFile()? As far as I understood, ReadFile() may return with less bytes read than specified, i.e. NumberOfBytesRead &lt;= NumberOfBytesToRead. Do I have to check every time that NumberOfBytesRead is a multiple of sizeof(double)?</p>