Three methods of interprocess communication

stay linux In the system , Each process has its own virtual space address , adopt MMU Address translation maps virtual addresses to physical addresses , The same virtual address space of each process is mapped to different physical addresses , Each process is independent and isolated from each other in the physical memory space .
If different processes need to communicate with each other , What should I do ？ Because different processes are isolated from each other in physical memory , So we need to use third-party tools to complete interprocess communication . In fact, the essence of interprocess communication is to exchange data , There are three ways to exchange data between processes ： Through documents 、 Through the kernel 、 Shared memory .

• Through documents ：AB The process accesses the same disk file (I/O visit ) Data exchange
• Through the kernel ： The user space between processes is independent of each other , But the kernel space is the same , Therefore, the kernel can be used as an intermediary for data exchange
• Shared memory ： Virtual addresses between processes are mapped to different physical addresses , If mapping to the same physical address is allowed, data exchange can be carried out

Shared memory features

• Shared memory VS Through documents ： Shared memory reads and writes faster
• Shared memory VS Through the kernel ： Abandoned the kernel “ The agent ” role , Let two processes communicate directly through a piece of memory . Reduced memory copy （ Copy from user to kernel 、 Copy from kernel to user space ）, Less 2 Secondary system call , Improve system performance
• Shared memory disadvantages ： Shared memory does not provide a synchronization mechanism , So we need to use other mechanisms to synchronize the orientation of shared memory , This will be done by the programmer . In general, you can use semaphores 、 The mutex 、 File lock, etc , Prevent data from trampling .

Shared memory principle

Shared memory is made up of IPC A special address range created for the process , Appears in the address space of the process , Other processes can connect the same piece of shared memory to their own address space . All processes have access to addresses in shared memory , It's as if they were made up of malloc The distribution is the same . If a process writes data to shared memory , Then other processes will immediately be able to see .

Shared memory usage

establish / Get shared memory shmget

This function is used to create / Get shared memory

#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
int shmget(key_t key, size_t size, int shmflg);

• key：IPC The key value of the object , It's usually IPC_PRIVATE or ftok Back to key value
• size： Shared memory University , Generally, it is an integer multiple of the physical page
• shmflg：IPC_CREAT: If there is no such thing as key The corresponding segment , Then create a new segment ;IPC_EXCL： if key The specified memory exists and is specified IPC_CREAT, return EEXIST error ;
• Return value ： Identifier of shared memory ID

Map shared memory shmat

This function will shmid The identified shared memory is introduced into the virtual address space of the current process

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
void *shmat(int shmid, const void *shmaddr, int shmflg);

• shmid： Shared memory IPC object ID
• shmaddr： if NULL： Shared memory will be attach To a suitable virtual address space , It is recommended to use NULL; Not for NULL： The system will assign an appropriate address according to parameters and address boundary alignment
• shmflg：IPC_RDONLY： Additional read-only permissions , If not specified, the default is read-write permission ;IPC_REMAP： Replace at shmaddr Any existing mapping at ： Shared memory segment or memory mapping ;
• Return value ： The address of the shared memory segment

Shared memory read / write

When reading and writing shared memory, you should pay attention to the synchronization of shared memory multi process access , In general, you can use semaphores 、 The mutex 、 File lock, etc , Prevent data from trampling .

Unmapping memory shmdt

This function unmaps the memory , Separate the shared memory from the address space of the current process

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
int shmdt(const void *shmaddr);

• shmaddr： Shared memory address

Be careful , function shmdt Just decouple the process from shared memory , Decrements the reference count of shared memory by 1, And delete shared memory for . adopt #ipc -m You can view a IPC Object state , among “ The number of connections ” Is the count of references to the shared memory object .

Delete shared memory

See above ,shmdt Just decouple the process from shared memory , Shared memory was not deleted . When the number of shared memory references is not 0, You can call shmctl Of IPC_RMID Command to delete shared memory . Or after the process ends , It will also be deleted .
shmctl obtain / Set shared memory object properties

#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
int shmctl(int shmid, int cmd, struct shmid_ds *buf);

• shmid： Shared memory objects ID
• cmd：IPC_RMID： Delete the shared memory segment and its associated shmid_ds data structure
• buf： Point to the structure that contains the sharing mode and access rights
• Return value ： Successfully returns 0, Failure to return -1

added cmd Can pass man shmct To view the .

producer - Consumer code example

Here is a simple producer - Consumer model , producer producer The process is responsible for writing the data entered by the user to the shared memory , consumer customer The process is responsible for reading out and printing out the shared memory . The following program example uses shared memory variables written_by_you Mark for a read-write synchronization , Ensure that read and write operations are mutually exclusive .

//share.h
#define TEXT_SZ 2048
struct shared_use_st 
{
    
	int written_by_you;
	char some_text[TEXT_SZ];
};

//customer.c
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
#include "share.h"
int main()
{
    
	int running = 1;
	void *shared_memory = (void *)0;
	struct shared_use_st *shared_stuff;
	int shmid;	
	srand((unsigned int)getpid());    
	shmid = shmget((key_t)1234, sizeof(struct shared_use_st), 0666 | IPC_CREAT);
	if (shmid == -1) 
	{
    
		fprintf(stderr, "shmget failed\n");
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	}
	shared_memory = shmat(shmid, (void *)0, 0);
	if (shared_memory == (void *)-1) {
    
		fprintf(stderr, "shmat failed\n");
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	}
	printf("Memory attached at %X\n", (int)shared_memory);
	shared_stuff = (struct shared_use_st *)shared_memory;
	shared_stuff->written_by_you = 0;
	while(running) 
	{
    
		if (shared_stuff->written_by_you) 
		{
    
			printf("You wrote: %s", shared_stuff->some_text);
			sleep( rand() % 4 );  
			shared_stuff->written_by_you = 0;
			if (strncmp(shared_stuff->some_text, "end", 3) == 0) 
			{
    
				running = 0;
			}
		}
	}
	if (shmdt(shared_memory) == -1) 
	{
    
		fprintf(stderr, "shmdt failed\n");
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	}
	if (shmctl(shmid, IPC_RMID, 0) == -1) 
	{
    
		fprintf(stderr, "shmctl(IPC_RMID) failed\n");
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	}	
	printf("customer exit.\n");
	exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

//producer.c
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
#include "share.h"
int main()
{
    
	int running = 1;
	void *shared_memory = (void *)0;
	struct shared_use_st *shared_stuff;
	char buffer[BUFSIZ];
	int shmid;

	shmid = shmget((key_t)1234, sizeof(struct shared_use_st), 0666 | IPC_CREAT);

	if (shmid == -1) 
	{
    
		fprintf(stderr, "shmget failed\n");
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

	shared_memory = shmat(shmid, (void *)0, 0);
	if (shared_memory == (void *)-1) 
	{
    
		fprintf(stderr, "shmat failed\n");
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	}

	printf("Memory attached at %X\n", (int)shared_memory);

	shared_stuff = (struct shared_use_st *)shared_memory;
	while(running) 
	{
    
		while(shared_stuff->written_by_you == 1) 
		{
    
			sleep(1);            
			printf("waiting for client...\n");
		}
		printf("Enter some text: ");
		fgets(buffer, BUFSIZ, stdin);
        
		strncpy(shared_stuff->some_text, buffer, TEXT_SZ);
		shared_stuff->written_by_you = 1;

		if (strncmp(buffer, "end", 3) == 0) 
		{
    
			running = 0;
		}
	}

	if (shmdt(shared_memory) == -1) 
	{
    
		fprintf(stderr, "shmdt failed\n");
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	}
	printf("producer exit.\n");
	exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

Reference material
[1] The embedded C Phonetic self-cultivation , Wang Litao
[2] Dalian University of Technology 《 Embedded software design 》 MOOC