Using Named Pipes

I'm trying to use a named pipe in PHP, but I have a feeling I'm misunderstanding something. I'm hoping someone might have some insight. Here's the basic outline of what I'm doing posix_mkfifo($argfile, 0600) $argp = fopen($argfile, "w+"); $command = "program $argfile"; $fp = popen($command, "r"); fputs($argp, 'data = ' . $post); $response = fgetcsv($fp, 1000); The named pipe is being created ok. But my page hangs while trying to read the response in the last line. Everything works fine if I replace the named pipe with a standard file. So it really seems that it is the use of the named pipe that is wedging me. Any thoughts? -- JR