-///* pid: the pid of the trace process that must receive the msg
-// msg: pointer to a null-terminated message to send
-// reply: location where to put the null-terminated string of the reply;
-// it must be free'd after usage
-// */
-//
-//int send_message_pid(pid_t pid, const char *msg, char **reply)
-//{
-// int result;
-// char path[UNIX_PATH_MAX];
-//
-// result = snprintf(path, UNIX_PATH_MAX, "%s/%d", SOCK_DIR, pid);
-// if(result >= UNIX_PATH_MAX) {
-// fprintf(stderr, "string overflow allocating socket name");
-// return -1;
-// }
-//
-// send_message_path(path, msg, reply, pid);
-//
-// return 0;
-//}
+/* returns 1 to indicate a message was received
+ * returns 0 to indicate no message was received (end of stream)
+ * returns -1 to indicate an error
+ */