IPC Mechanisms in Linux – DEV Community

In Linux, several Inter-Process Communication (IPC) mechanisms allow processes to communicate and share data. These mechanisms are critical for coordination between processes running in user space. Here are some of the most commonly used IPC mechanisms

IPC mechanism	Main features	Speed	Usage scenarios
Blowjob	Unidirectional, suitable for parent-child processes.	Medium	Easy communication between related processes.
Message queues	Queue messages, supports priority messages.	Medium	Asynchronous messaging between processes.
Shared memory	Fastest IPC, shared memory region accessible by multiple processes.	Quick	Fast data exchange between processes.
Semaphores	Synchronization of processes to avoid race conditions.	Medium	Manage access to shared resources.
Signals	Asynchronous notification.	Quick	Event notification, process control.
Sockets	Network communication (or locally via UNIX domain).	Medium/slow	Network and local client-server communications.
Mmap	Memory-mapped files or devices, shared memory via file allocation.	Quick	Shared memory via file allocations.
D bus	High-level communication between applications (used in desktop environments).	Medium	Application level IPC (e.g. GNOME, KDE).
Eventfd/Signalfd	File descriptor-based event and signal processing.	Quick	Processing events and signals `poll` or `epoll`.
POSIX message queues	Prioritized FIFO messages, used in real-time applications.	Medium	Pass real-time messages.
Files	Slowly but easily and continuously share data via files.	Slowly	Data persistence, logging, simple IPC.