How do I use a serial port on Linux like a pipe or netcat?

Question

I have two computers with two serial ports: ttyS0 and ttyUSB0. (Actually they are on the same computer but that's just for testing). The ports are connected via null modem cable. I want to be able to simply send bytes into one end and come out the other end, and vice versa. Why doesn't the below work?:

# set both serial ports to 9600 8n1
# `-parenb` means no parity,
# `-cstopb` means 1 stop bit
# cs8 means 8 bits at a time 
stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 cs8 -cstopb -parenb 9600
stty -F /dev/ttyS0 cs8 -cstopb -parenb 9600

# in one terminal:
echo "asdf" > /dev/ttyUSB0

# in another terminal, this hangs and does nothing
cat < /dev/ttyS0

I can do similar things with netcat and pipes very easily (below), so I feel something like the above should be possible as well.

mkfifo mypipe

# in one terminal
cat < mypipe

# in another. works as expected
echo "asdf" > mypipe

Answer 1

Why doesn't the below work?

# in one terminal:
echo "asdf" > /dev/ttyUSB0

# in another terminal, this hangs and does nothing
cat < /dev/ttyS0

Because, as a rule, serial ports don't buffer data. If there's no client app to receive the bytes landing on the serial port, they will simply be discarded.

As an experiment, try launching minicom or cu or another serial terminal program on the receiving computer, then run the echo command again on the transmitting computer. Assuming the baud rate and framings line up, you should see "asdf" appear at the destination.