Boost.Interprocess simplifies the use of common
interprocess communication and synchronization mechanisms and offers a wide
range of them:
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Shared memory.
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Memory-mapped files.
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Semaphores, mutexes, condition variables and upgradable mutex types to place
them in shared memory and memory mapped files.
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Named versions of those synchronization objects, similar to UNIX/Windows
sem_open/CreateSemaphore API.
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File locking.
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Relative pointers.
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Message queues.
Boost.Interprocess also offers higher-level
interprocess mechanisms to allocate dynamically portions of a shared memory
or a memory mapped file (in general, to allocate portions of a fixed size memory
segment). Using these mechanisms, Boost.Interprocess
offers useful tools to construct C++ objects, including STL-like containers,
in shared memory and memory mapped files:
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Dynamic creation of anonymous and named objects in a shared memory or memory
mapped file.
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STL-like containers compatible with shared memory/memory-mapped files.
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STL-like allocators ready for shared memory/memory-mapped files implementing
several memory allocation patterns (like pooling).
There is no need to compile Boost.Interprocess,
since it's a header only library. Just include your Boost header directory
in your compiler include path.
Boost.Interprocess depends on Boost.DateTime, which needs separate compilation.
However, the subset used by Boost.Interprocess
does not need any separate compilation so the user can define BOOST_DATE_TIME_NO_LIB to avoid Boost from
trying to automatically link the Boost.DateTime.
In POSIX systems, Boost.Interprocess uses
pthread system calls to implement classes like mutexes, condition variables,
etc... In some operating systems, these POSIX calls are implemented in separate
libraries that are not automatically linked by the compiler. For example,
in some Linux systems POSIX pthread functions are implemented in librt.a library, so you might need to add that
library when linking an executable or shared library that uses Boost.Interprocess. If you obtain linking errors related
to those pthread functions, please revise your system's documentation to
know which library implements them.
Boost.Interprocess has been tested in the
following compilers/platforms:
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Visual 7.1 Windows XP
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Visual 8.0 Windows XP
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GCC 4.1.1 MinGW
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GCC 3.4.4 Cygwin
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Intel 9.1 Windows XP
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GCC 4.1.2 Linux
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GCC 3.4.3 Solaris 11
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GCC 4.0 MacOs 10.4.1
