Book Image

Mastering Linux Kernel Development

By : CH Raghav Maruthi
Book Image

Mastering Linux Kernel Development

By: CH Raghav Maruthi

Overview of this book

Mastering Linux Kernel Development looks at the Linux kernel, its internal arrangement and design, and various core subsystems, helping you to gain significant understanding of this open source marvel. You will look at how the Linux kernel, which possesses a kind of collective intelligence thanks to its scores of contributors, remains so elegant owing to its great design. This book also looks at all the key kernel code, core data structures, functions, and macros, giving you a comprehensive foundation of the implementation details of the kernel’s core services and mechanisms. You will also look at the Linux kernel as well-designed software, which gives us insights into software design in general that are easily scalable yet fundamentally strong and safe. By the end of this book, you will have considerable understanding of and appreciation for the Linux kernel.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
Index

Message queues


Message queues are lists of message buffers through which an arbitrary number of processes can communicate. Unlike pipes, the writer does not have to wait for the reader to open the pipe and listen for data. Similar to a mailbox, writers can drop a fixed-length message wrapped in a buffer into the queue, which the reader can pick whenever it is ready. The message queue does not retain the message packet after it is picked by the reader, which means that each message packet is assured to be process persistent. Linux supports two distinct implementations of message queues: classic Unix SYSV message queues and contemporary POSIX message queues.

System V message queues

This is the classic AT&T message queue implementation suitable for messaging between an arbitrary number of unrelated processes. Sender processes wrap each message into a packet containing message data and a message number. The message queue implementation does not define the meaning of the message number, and...