Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Panagiotis Kougiiouris

Graham Hamilton

A computer-implemented method and apparatus in a computer system for inter-process communication. A first procedure allocates a first buffer in a first memory space shared by the first procedure (e.g. a client process) and a second procedure (e.g. a kernel or server process). The first procedure then marshals arguments for communicating with the second procedure in the first buffer. The first procedure indicates that a message for the second procedure is being passed and passes a first reference to the first buffer in the first memory space to the second procedure. The second procedure detects the indication of the message by the first procedure. The second procedure then references the first buffer and copies the arguments contained in the first buffer into a temporary buffer. The second procedure can then deallocate the first buffer. In implemented embodiments of the present invention, inter-process communication is more efficient because the first buffer is deallocated upon receipt of the communication by the second process.

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Panagiotis Kougiiouris