Named Pipes

[moseley@hank.org]

I wanted to use a named pipe to provide random images.  I know I can use 
a program in a loop writing to the pipe, but that means starting the 
program initially (from say a init.d or xdm startup script) where it 
sits blocked until read from.

Question:

Is there a way in Linux to have the action of the reading program 
opening the pipe (for reading) start up the writing program?

For example, if output_image.pl is a script that writes an image to a 
named pipe, is there a way to associate it to a pipe where you can say:

   $ display some_named_pipe

and have that action execute the program output_image.pl?

I'm just wondering if there's a way to avoid starting the writing 
program.


-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley@hank.org