Interprocess Communication Extensions for the UNIX Operating System: I. Design Considerations.

Carl A. Sunshine

ResearchPublished 1977

The UNIX operating system for the PDP-11 series of minicomputers has gained wide popularity in academic and government circles. This report considers interprocess communication (IPC) facilities with the goal of developing an improved IPC capability for UNIX. An outline of the major issues involved in providing IPC is developed based on a survey of the literature, and UNIX IPC facilities are described in terms of that outline. By considering new applications being developed under UNIX, several shortcomings in the standard IPC facilities are identified, including the inability of "unrelated" processes to communicate, the inability to wait for multiple inputs, and primitive synchronization facilities. Techniques to provide desirable improvements are suggested, including named ports, message ports, improved signals, and message facilities. Ports appear to have the highest benefit/cost ratio, and their implementation is described in a companion report, R-2064/2. 31 pp. Ref.

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Sunshine, Carl A., Interprocess Communication Extensions for the UNIX Operating System: I. Design Considerations. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1977. https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R2064z1.html.
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