.. _ipc:

Interprocess Communication
================================================

.. seealso:: :ref:`pipe`

Examples of interprocess and interthread communication facilities includes:

    * Data transfer:

        - Pipes (named, dynamic -- shell or process generated)
          
        - shared buffers or files

        - TCP/IP socket communication (named, dynamic - loop back interface
          or network interface)

        - D-Bus is an IPC mechanism offering one to many broadcast and
          subscription facilities between processes.  Among other uses, it
          is used by graphical frameworks such as KDE and GNOME.  See
          the `wiki <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Bus>`_.


    * Shared memory

        - Between Processes

        - Between Threads (global memory)

    * Messages

        - OS provided message passing:
            send() / receive() -- see :ref:`microkernel`

        - Signals

        - Via locks, semaphores or monitors

**Contents**

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   signal
   ipc_problems