XPCOM Stream Guide
(xxx nsiunicharinputstream interface) (xxx nsiunicharlineinputstream interface) (xxx nsisearchableinputstream interface) stream converters (tbd: @mozilla.org/streamconverters;1) forcing an input stream to be read suppose you already have an input stream, and something to read from that input stream...but the reader doesn't do anything with the stream.

nsIPipe
last changed in gecko 1.6 method overview void init(in boolean nonblockinginput, in boolean nonblockingoutput, in unsigned long segmentsize, in unsigned long segmentcount, in nsimemory segmentallocator); attributes attribute type description inputstream nsiasyncinputstream the pipe's input end, which also implements nsisearchableinputstream.