What's the best IPC method for intra-machine process communication in Win32?

Question

I need to implement inter-process communication system for processes (in machine-wide) in Win32 using native C++ (.NET is not applicable). For more detail, I'm considering message routing system between the processes using binary formatted messages. Message sending/receiving must be asynchronous.

TCP socket could be one of the selection. But, I just want to know if there could be better choice for high performance. (I can ignore security problems.)

I'm not requesting detailed code, but just your insights.

possible duplicate of [any good and simple RPC library for inter-process calls?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5398673/any-good-and-simple-rpc-library-for-inter-process-calls) — dalle, Apr 04 '11 at 08:05

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 04 '11 at 07:33

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If you have some time to spare, and if you like risk and experimentation, you can use the undocumented Windows feature: Local Procedure Call. It's been there forever, and it's probably the fastest, because it's the foundation for all others.

answered Apr 04 '11 at 07:33

Simon Mourier

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this is interesting: is the first time I heard about it – Felice Pollano Apr 04 '11 at 07:34
Well, according to that Wikipedia link, Local Procedure Call only allows calls within the same machine. – Prof. Falken Apr 04 '11 at 07:35
@Amigable - yes, as the question was about "intra-machine" IPC – Simon Mourier Apr 04 '11 at 08:06
Oops, my understanding of English just improved, sorry. – Prof. Falken Apr 04 '11 at 09:25
After some research, I've found that this was exactly what I need. Thanks. – Daniel K. Apr 05 '11 at 01:07
@Simon Mourier, make some cosmetic change to your answer so I can upvote. I thought your answer was very interesting, I didn't know about this API. – Prof. Falken Apr 06 '11 at 05:33
@Daniel K., since RPC uses LPC internally when RPC calls go between local applications, you could also run some tests too see if there is any performance benefit to using LPC over RPC. – Prof. Falken Apr 06 '11 at 05:34
Surely the fact that this is Undocumented makes it a bad choice. By not documenting it Microsoft are saying that may remove it or change it in an incompatible way in future versions of Windows. – Martin Brown Dec 08 '11 at 10:37
@MartinBrown - Like I said, it's a risky choice. BTW, it's been there for 20 years. – Simon Mourier Dec 08 '11 at 10:41

Felice Pollano · Answer 2 · 2011-04-04T07:31:34.037

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You shoul have a look at named pipes too: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365590%28v=vs.85%29.aspx. I know of MemoryMappedFiles too for IPC: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms810613.aspx, but I personally never tryed. I used both NamedPipes and Socket on a single machine IPC strategy, but I frankly nevear measured performance difference between the two approach, or at least I did not notice a so big difference to say "avoid this..." or "prefer this other...". Maybe starting with the technology you are more confident in will give you a good working result, and more free time ;)

edited Apr 04 '11 at 07:31

answered Apr 04 '11 at 07:18

Felice Pollano

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yep. see this link on SO as well: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1882886/performance-of-sockets-vs-pipes – Simon Mourier Apr 04 '11 at 07:27

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 04 '11 at 07:44

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I'm a fan of memory mapped files. Wrapped with reader/writer locks to provide access restrictions.

answered Apr 04 '11 at 07:44

Angelom

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What's the best IPC method for intra-machine process communication in Win32?

3 Answers3