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Communication

This section covers how processes communicate and synchronize with each other in Linux systems.

Overview

Process communication and synchronization are essential for building complex applications that require coordination between multiple execution contexts.

Topics Covered

Inter-Process Communication (IPC)

Mechanisms for processes to exchange data and coordinate actions.

Key Topics:

  • Pipes (named and unnamed)
  • Signals and signal handling
  • Sockets (Unix domain and network)
  • Message queues
  • Shared memory
  • Semaphores

Synchronization

Mechanisms to coordinate access to shared resources and prevent race conditions.

Key Topics:

  • Mutexes and their implementation
  • Semaphores (binary and counting)
  • Deadlock conditions and prevention
  • Livelock
  • Race conditions
  • Spinlocks vs mutexes

File Descriptors & I/O

Understanding how processes interact with files, devices, and network connections.

Key Topics:

  • File descriptor tables
  • Standard file descriptors (stdin, stdout, stderr)
  • I/O redirection
  • Blocking vs non-blocking I/O
  • I/O multiplexing (select, poll, epoll)
  • Asynchronous I/O

Why This Matters

In production systems, multiple processes and threads must coordinate efficiently:

  • Distributed systems rely on IPC mechanisms
  • Performance depends on efficient synchronization
  • Correctness requires understanding race conditions and deadlocks
  • Scalability requires non-blocking I/O patterns

These topics are frequently tested in SRE interviews through:

  • Theoretical questions about mechanisms
  • Practical debugging scenarios
  • Design questions about inter-process architectures
  • Troubleshooting concurrency issues