in reply to Portable in-memory files

I wonder if the c-library in question would accept/work with a handle to a pipe? I guess it depends on whether it just writes to the file descriptor, or whether it does any seeks.

If it will, then you could fork, give the library routine the handle to one end of the pipe in the child and read the results back in the parent.

There is a short sample program in perlipc under the heading "Bidirectional Communication with Yourself" which would serve as a starting point.

Examine what is said, not who speaks.
1) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2) The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible
3) Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke.

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom