# Query /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status in terminal

Source: https://forum.modalai.com/topic/980/query-run-mpa-vvpx4_sys_status-in-terminal
Category: General Questions (https://forum.modalai.com/category/2/general-questions)
Posted: 2022-06-06 13:17:20 UTC by wouter
Replies: 3 · Views: 746

## wouter · 2022-06-06 13:17:20 UTC

Hi,
I like to query the data from `/run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status` from inside a docker container. 
I'm running docker with `-v /run/mpa/:/run/mpa:rw`, so I can see `/run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status`
Is there a way to read the data without using modal_pipe_client?
I tried `cat /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status/request` but that just stalls.
I'm running dotnet in the container and tried using `NamedPipeClientStream`, but that eventually gives a time-out.

## Reply by Guest · 2022-06-06 18:02:05 UTC

Hi, this is not a plaintext pipe and won't show any viewable data with a cat. The data coming through is in the mavlink packet protocol. We'd strongly recommend using the library that we've set up to manage all the pipes, but it is theoretically possible to use standard unix commands or another interface. The libmodal-pipe pipes are actually more of folders that contain a number of pipes so that the data can be distributed to an arbitrary number of clients. To read the data you should echo a plaintext name into the request pipe, after which the server will create a fifo with that name which could then be catted or opened with a read i.e. ```echo "test" > /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status/request && cat /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status/test```

## Reply by wouter · 2022-06-07 04:39:34 UTC

Thanks, this makes a bit more clear. 

I tried running your command, but it returns an error. I tried `cat`'ing `test?` and that stalls.

```
yocto:~$ echo "test" > /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status/request && cat /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status/test
cat: /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status/test: No such file or directory
yocto:~$ ls -alh /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status/
total 4.0K
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root 100 Jun  7 04:33 .
drwxr-xr-x. 12 root root 260 Jan  1  1970 ..
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root 185 Jan  1  1970 info
prw-r--r--.  1 root root   0 Jun  7 04:33 request
prw-r--r--.  1 root root   0 Jun  7 04:33 test?
yocto:~$ cat /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status/test?

```

## Reply by wouter · 2022-06-16 05:26:37 UTC (in reply to Guest)

@Alex-Gardner Thank for your reply, could you maybe look at my question I still have?