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Chapter 13 - Interprocess Communication

UNIX Systems Programming for SVR4
David A. Curry
 Copyright © 1996 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

Chapter 13: Interprocess Communication
Overview
One of the most important features of the UNIX operating system is its ability to allow two processes to communicate with each other by exchanging data. This allows simple programs to be combined to build complex tools. Modularity is a major UNIX philosophy—it is better to develop small tools that do one thing well and then combine them, rather than develop huge monolithic programs that attempt to do everything for everyone. With a modular design, you can add or change functionality by changing individual subprograms.
In this chapter, we examine the myriad ways in which two UNIX processes executing on the same computer can communicate with each other. In the next two chapters, we examine how processes running on different computers can communicate. We begin this chapter with a discussion of pipes, the most basic form of interprocess communication (IPC), one that has been around since UNIX was created. We move on to first-in first-out devices, usually called FIFOs or named pipes, and then to UNIX-domain sockets, which in some sense are the same thing implemented differently. We finish with a discussion of message queues, semaphores, and shared memory; these three ideas are often collectively referred to as System V IPC.

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