Operating Systems (CS3000)

Lecture – 15
(Inter Process Communication - 2)

Dr. Jaishree Mayank

Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Sc. and Engg.
 Problem with SM
• Synchronization needed between the processes

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 Message Passing RAM
• SM is created in Kernel
SM
• System calls are used Kernel/OS
• send(): Write to SM send ()
• receive(): Read from SM

Process - 1 receive()

Process - 2

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 IPC using Message Queues
• linked list of messages
• stored within the kernel
• identified by a message queue identifier.
• Functions
• msgget()  To create a message queue/Open Existing
• msgsnd()  To write message to message queue by Sender/New messages
are added to the end of the queue
• msgrcv()  To retrieve message from message queue by Receiver
• msgctl()  The control function

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 IPC using Message Queues
• Sender
• Create the MQ
• Add data to the MQ
• Receiver
• Retrieve the data from MQ
• Delete the MQ

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 IPC using Message Queues
• int msgget(key_t key, int msgflg);

• creates a new message queue

• On success, msgget()returns the message queue identifier (a positive

integer).
• On failure, it returns -1and sets errnoto indicate the error.

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 IPC using Message Queues

• int msgsnd(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, int msgflg);

• send a message to the message queue specified by the msqid parameter.
• It is returned by the msgget() function and used to identify the message
queue to send the message to.

• The *msgp parameter points to a user-defined buffer that must contain the
following:
• A field of type long int that specifies the type of the message.
• An array that contains the actual content of the message.

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 IPC using Message Queues
• int msgsnd(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, int msgflg);
• The following structure is an example of what the user-defined buffer might
look like for a message that has 5 bytes of data.
struct mymsg
{
long int mtype; /* message type */
char mtext[5]; /* message text */
}
• The value of mtype must be greater than zero. When messages are received
with msgrcv(), the message type can be used to select the messages.
• The message data can be any length up to the system limit.

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 IPC using Message Queues
• int msgsnd(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, int msgflg);
•
• msgsz: Length of the data part of the message to be sent.

• msgflg: If the message queue is full, the msgflg parameter specifies the
action to be taken. The actions are as follows:
• 0: Suspended
• IPC_NOWAIT: do not wait for space to become available on the message queue and
return immediately.

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 IPC using Message Queues
• int msgrcv(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, long int msgtyp, int
msgflg);


The msgrcv() function reads a message from the message queue
specified by the msqid parameter and places it in the user-defined
buffer pointed to by the *msgp parameter.

The *msgp parameter points to a user-defined buffer that must
contain the following:
• A field of type long int that specifies the type of the message.
• A data part that contains the data bytes of the message.

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 IPC using Message Queues
• int msgrcv(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, long int msgtyp, int
msgflg);
struct mymsg
{
long int mtype; /* message type */
char mtext[5]; /* message text */
}
• The value of mtype is the type of the received message, as specified
by the sender of the message.
• The msgsz parameter specifies the size in bytes of the data part of
the message.
• The received message is truncated to msgsz bytes if it is larger than msgsz.

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 IPC using Message Queues
• int msgrcv(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, long int msgtyp, int
msgflg);

• The msgtyp parameter specifies the type of message to receive from

the message queue as follows:
• If msgtyp = 0, read the first message in the queue.
• the messages will the retrieved in the same order in which they were written into the
message queue
• If msgtyp > 0, the first message of type “msgtyp” is only received.
• If msgtyp < 0, the first message of the lowest type that is less than or equal
to the absolute value of msgtyp is received.

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 IPC using Message Queues
• int msgrcv(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, long int msgtyp, int
msgflg);
• If a message of the desired type is not available on the message queue,
the msgflg parameter specifies the action to be taken. The actions are as
follows:

• If the IPC_NOWAIT flag is set in the msgflg parameter, msgrcv() returns

immediately with a return value of -1.

• If 0 : suspend the process

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 IPC using Message Queues
• int msgctl(int msqid, int cmd, struct msqid_ds *buf);
• The msgctl() function allows the caller to control the message queue
specified by the msqid parameter.
• msqid Message queue identifier, a positive integer. It is returned by
the msgget() function and used to identify the message queue on which to
perform the control operation.
• cmd Command, the control operation to perform on the message queue.
• buf Pointer to the message queue data structure to be used to get or set
message queue information.
• msqid_ds

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MQ_Send1.c

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MQ_Send1.c

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 Thank You
Any Questions?

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