Please comment if this works for communication among processes and threads

Question

There are several processes and some threads in one process. All processes need to talk to each other. Threads in one process need to talk to the process(main threads). I am wondering if this design works:

1. Every process has a msg queue (using msgget(), msgsnd, msgrcv() ) so that they can talk to each other by linux API.

2. Every thread has a msg queue (also using msgget, msgsnd, msgrcv ) so that it can talk to the mainthread and other threads. So, this process in which threads are residing will have the process queue and threads' queue, Is there any problem?

I am worrying about the item 2 since what I learn is that msgget, msgsnd, msgrcv are for inter process communication. I read manual about these functions. It looks like no mentioning about if these functions are supporting threads. In addition, could you please refer me to some best online Linux/Unix manual? I am not good at it since I feel it hard to find what I am looking for like, if a function or semaphore can support thread/manual. Stupid question, :).

Please help. Thanks.

Answer 1

So, this process in which threads are residing will have the process queue and threads' queue, Is there any problem?

No there is no problem, Each message Queue is identified by a Queue Id which is unique and whoever, a thread or a process can provide this queue id can access the Message Queue.

If it gives you any comfort, I have used message Queue's for thread context switching flawlessly so be assured it works.

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It is usually best to just man on your unix/Linux installation but Since You asked for online resources, You can refer to the Online Linux Man pages for reference.