Editing Inter-process communication (section)

== Approaches ==
Different approaches to IPC have been tailored to different [[software requirements]], such as [[Algorithmic efficiency|performance]], [[Software design|modularity]], and system circumstances such as [[Bandwidth (computing)|network bandwidth]] and [[Latency (engineering)|latency]].<ref name="microsoft.com" />

{| class="wikitable"
! Method   !! Short Description !! Provided by ([[operating system]]s or other environments)
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| [[computer file|File]] || A record stored on disk, or a record synthesized on demand by a file server, which can be accessed by multiple processes. || Most operating systems
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| Communications file || A unique form of IPC in the late-1960s that most closely resembles [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs|Plan 9]]'s [[9P (protocol)|9P protocol]]||[[Dartmouth Time-Sharing System]]
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| [[signal (computing)|Signal]]; also [[Asynchronous System Trap]] || A system message sent from one process to another, not usually used to transfer data but instead used to remotely command the partnered process. || Most operating systems
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| [[network socket|Socket]] || Data sent over a network interface, either to a different process on the same computer or to another computer on the network. Stream-oriented ([[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]]; data written through a socket requires formatting to preserve message boundaries) or more rarely message-oriented ([[User Datagram Protocol|UDP]], [[SCTP]]). || Most operating systems
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| [[Unix domain socket]] || Similar to an internet socket, but all communication occurs within the kernel. Domain sockets use the file system as their address space. Processes reference a domain socket as an [[inode]], and multiple processes can communicate with one socket || All POSIX operating systems and Windows 10<ref>{{cite web|title=Windows/WSL Interop with AF_UNIX|date=7 February 2018 |url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/02/07/windowswsl-interop-with-af_unix |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=25 May 2018}}</ref>
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| [[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. || Most operating systems
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|[[Anonymous pipe]]|| A unidirectional data channel using [[Stdin|standard input and output]]. Data written to the write-end of the pipe is buffered by the operating system until it is read from the read-end of the pipe. Two-way communication between processes can be achieved by using two pipes in opposite "directions". || All [[POSIX]] systems, Windows
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| [[Named pipe]] || A pipe that is treated like a file. Instead of using standard input and output as with an anonymous pipe, processes write to and read from a named pipe, as if it were a regular file. || All POSIX systems, Windows, AmigaOS 2.0+
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| [[Shared memory (interprocess communication)|Shared memory]] || Multiple processes are given access to the same block of [[Memory (computing)|memory]], which creates a shared buffer for the processes to communicate with each other. || All POSIX systems, Windows
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| [[Message passing]] || Allows multiple programs to communicate using message queues and/or non-OS managed channels. Commonly used in concurrency models. || Used in [[Local Inter-Process Communication|LPC]], [[Remote procedure call|RPC]], [[Remote method invocation|RMI]], and [[Message Passing Interface|MPI]] paradigms, [[Java RMI]], [[CORBA]], [[Component Object Model|COM]], [[Data Distribution Service|DDS]], [[Microsoft Message Queuing|MSMQ]], [[MailSlot]]s, [[QNX]], others
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| [[Memory-mapped file]] || A file mapped to [[RAM]] and can be modified by changing memory addresses directly instead of outputting to a stream. This shares the same benefits as a standard [[File (computing)|file]]. || All POSIX systems, Windows
|-
|}