IPC vs domain sock vs named pipes

cipcsystem

Whats the different between IPC and Unix domain sockets and named pipes?

I got vague definitions from various books but couldn't get clarity on which one should be used where.

Best Answer

Just about any way two processes communicate with each other could be considered a form of IPC.

For example:

  1. Unnamed Pipes ( cat file.txt | grep foo ) or Named Pipes
  2. Unix Domain Sockets
  3. TCP or UDP sockets
  4. Netlink Sockets on Linux
  5. Various Shared Memory Mechanisms such as Memory Mapped Files
  6. High Speed Message Passing such as ZeroMQ
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