PeekNamedPipe always returns 0 for totalBytesAvailable

Question

  PeekNamedPipe( 
    tmp_pipe,                // __in       HANDLE hNamedPipe, 
    NULL,                  // __out_opt  LPVOID lpBuffer, 
    0,                     // __in       DWORD nBufferSize, 
    NULL,                  // __out_opt  LPDWORD lpBytesRead, 
    &totalBytesAvailable,  // __out_opt  LPDWORD lpTotalBytesAvail, 
    NULL                   // __out_opt  LPDWORD lpBytesLeftThisMessage 
  ); 

I have written bytes to the pipe somewhere else,but totalBytesAvailable is always 0,why?