C++ IPC Library

English | 简体中文

IPC communication library with optional communication methods

This repository implements a C++ IPC library based on the Linux System V IPC interface and Windows communication interface, encapsulating various IPC mechanisms such as message queues and named pipes. This library aims to simplify communication operations between processes.

Characteristics

• Supports both Linux and Windows operating systems, as well as multiple compilers such as GCC, MinGW, MSVC, etc.
• When creating a communication node abstraction IPC::node, the IPC::ChannelType parameter can be used to specify the underlying IPC channel type, such as messageQueue, NamedPipe, etc.

Compile and Test

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/leinfinitr/ipc.git
2. Navigate to the project directory: cd ipc
3. Initialize submodules: git submodule update --init --recursive
4. Compile: make
5. After compilation, the following files will be generated in the output directory:
   1. ipc-test-xxx executable test file
   2. Static library file libipc.a (Linux) or ipc.lib (Windows).

• Correctness Test: /output/bin/ipc-test-correctness
• Performance Test: run /output/bin/ ipc-test-performance-server and /output/bin/ipc-test-performance-client sequentially on different terminals.

Communication method support

• ✅ Realized
• 🔘 Unrealized
• 🚧 Implementing

Communication method	OS
	Windows	Linux
Named pipe	(Windows NamedPipe) ✅	🔘
Message queue	(Boost Interprocess) ✅	(System V IPC) ✅
Shared memory	🚧	🚧

Usage method

Introduce IPC library

For projects built using CMake, the IPC library can be introduced through the following methods:

set(IPC_LIB_PATH "/path/to/libipc.a")
set(IPC_INCLUDE_DIR "/path/to/ipc/include")
add_library(ipc STATIC IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(ipc PROPERTIES
    IMPORTED_LOCATION "${IPC_LIB_PATH}"
    INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES "${IPC_INCLUDE_DIR}"
)

target_link_libraries(your_target ipc)
target_include_directories(your_target PRIVATE ${IPC_INCLUDE_DIR})

Alternatively, it can be used directly as a third-party library in CMakeLists.txt:

add_subdirectory(ipc EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
set(IPC_INCLUDE_DIR "/path/to/ipc/include")
target_link_libraries(your_target ipc)
target_include_directories(your_target PRIVATE ${IPC_INCLUDE_DIR})

Code Writing

#include <ipc/ipc.h>

// Create two IPC nodes named 'Wow', using NamedPipe or MessageQueue (default) at the bottom 
// ipc::node receiver("Wow", ipc::NodeType::Receiver, ipc::ChannelType::NamedPipe);
// ipc::node receiver("Wow", ipc::NodeType::Receiver, ipc::ChannelType::MessageQueue);
ipc::node receiver("Wow", ipc::NodeType::kReceiver);
ipc::node sender("Wow", ipc::NodeType::kSender);
auto rec = receiver.Receive();   // Receive message (will block the process until the message is received)
sender.Send(data, sizeof(data)); // Send a message

Example

Two example programs are provided in the examples directory: sender.cpp and receiver.cpp.

The usage method is as follows:

cd examples
# Compile
make
# Run receiver
make run_receiver
# Run sender on the new terminal
make run_sender
# At this time, the receiver can receive the message
Received message: Hello, IPC!

Performance

• Windows: Intel (R) Core (TM) Ultra 5 225
• Linux: Intel (R) Core (TM) Ultra 9 185H

Communication latency / µs	Windows			Linux
	Message queue	Named pipe	cpp-ipc	Message queue	cpp-ipc
Average	0.952	21.9	253.7	61.5	47.0
Median	0.900	19.7	220.3	54.0	45.9
P95	1.10	28.5	488.4	89.1	60.1
P99	1.20	56.5	588.9	119.5	79.1