Inter-process communication
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- In computer science, inter-process communication or interprocess communication (IPC) refers specifically to the mechanisms an operating system provides to allow processes it manages to share data.
- Typically, applications can use IPC categorized as clients and servers, where the client requests data and the server responds to client requests.
Approaches
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Socket | A data stream sent over a network interface, either to a different process on the same computer or to another computer on the network. Typically byte-oriented, sockets rarely preserve message boundaries. Data written through a socket requires formatting to preserve message boundaries. |
| Shared memory | Multiple processes are given access to the same block of memory which creates a shared buffer for the processes to communicate with each other. |
| Signal | A system message sent from one process to another, not usually used to transfer data but instead used to remotely command the partnered process. |
| File | A record stored on disk, or a record synthesized on demand by a file server, which can be accessed by multiple processes. |
| Message queue | A data stream similar to a socket, but which usually preserves message boundaries. Typically implemented by the operating system, they allow multiple processes to read and write to the message queue without being directly connected to each other. |