PPH93%DMSWWU1A.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Thomas Heller) (10/13/90)
As far as i remember, in Minix it is possible even for user processes to communicate at each other using messages with send(), receive() and send_rec(). This would provide a communication scheme that is (as far as I konw) not available in other UNIX implementations. I'm thinking of programs where the buffers needed to store data do not fit into these 64k available on the PC. I dont know if the following is a good idea: The parent, each time it needs a buffer, does a fork(). The child allocates some buffer space and with send() tries do tell the parent of the buffer adress. The parent read this adress with receive(), and then, via kernel or fs, uses buffer to store data... If the buffer is not needed any longer, the parent can kill the child. I would like to hear some comments on this idea. BTW: I think this 64k+64k limitation (for the PC) is the worst bug minix has. Of course it is possible to switch to 386 Minix from Bruce Evans, but there are also some advantages in running a 'standard system'. Anyway: If anyone has used some communication scheme, I would also like to hear from this. Thomas Heller University of Muenster/Germany