Interprocess Communication

[Shraddha Advani]

Hi there!

Not really that well versed with perl and need to implement a "seemingly" complex problem. I need to implement a network of 'x' processes on the same host which should have the ability to communicate with each other and select a "boss process" amongst themselves so as to carry on with further functionality. Failure of the boss would result in an alarm for the rest processes and a new boss would immediately be chosen. Issue here is am not very clear what all to use to set up the network (Sockets?? (but the processes are on the same host!!)) and then how should i make these processes to communicate so as to know each others status??

any suggestions/recommendations there pls..

Shraddha

[miller]

Sockets yes. IPC yes. But there is no quick answer to this.

I suggest that you pick up the book "Network Programming with Perl". Even though it was written in 2001, it still is the most comprehensive book that I've come by for IPC. The nature of this type of coding hasn't really changed much in the intervening 6 years, but it's still a complicated task. And you're going to need study in order to accomplish it.

- Miller

[Shraddha Advani]

Thankyou for that quick reply!

Going through lotta IPC stuff and finally converged to comparision between POE v/s communication through sockets (Network communication in Perl).

Any idea on what should be preferred for message passing between processes on a network on the same host?

Thx in advance!

[miller]

There is no definitive answer that I know of.

Even among perl experts, the answer often just evolves around whichever technology the guru is most familiar with or was exposed to first. And even with people who are familar with both technologies, the answer still depends on what your ultimate goal is.

I would personally probably stick with sockets, but that's mostly because I still have less familiarity with POE. So I would advise you to pick whichever looks best to you. I believe they both can accomplish the job.

- Miller