How can I share an array of structs between a parent and child process in C?

Question

I am creating a simple client/server interface via pipes. When the server gets a request from the client, it forks to create the handler process.

I'm doing a rough implementation right now, so most of the data is held within an array of structs:

struct data{
    int value;
    char* description;
}

struct data events[100];

I need to, after the child process completes its job (which involves editing the structs within the array to have values and descriptions passed in by the client), send this data back to the server and refresh the server's events[] array, so that when it forks again from another request, the fork has the correct data within the array.

What can I use to do this?

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

1

Shared memory is the first thing that comes to mind.

Or you could just shove the bits over the pipe you already claim to have.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

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answered Nov 01 '16 at 19:37

Paul J. Lucas

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How could I send the struct array over a pipe? – Ajv2324 Nov 01 '16 at 20:56
1

@Ajv2324: `write(pipe_fd, array, sizeof(array[0]) * num_items);` – Jonathan Leffler Nov 02 '16 at 04:12

How can I share an array of structs between a parent and child process in C?

1 Answers1