US 10,474,512 B1Granted

Inter-process intra-application communications

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsJacek Stolcman, Walter Terry Heatlie, Steven Michael Saxon

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Abstract

Multiple processes of an application (or multiple applications capable of sharing private data) of a mobile device can communicate in a process-safe, secure, and efficient manner via a shared private file system. A first process can produce shared data for a second process to consume via the file system. For example, when the shared data changes, the first process can write a new file to the private file system and rename the new file to a specified file name. When the second process needs the shared data, the second process can evaluate certain metadata of the new file, such as a timestamp or a field comprising a monotonically increasing number. If a stored metadata value associated with the specified file name is less than the metadata value of the new file, the second process can safely retrieve the shared data from the new file.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining, by one or more processors of a computing device executing first instructions associated with a first process of a first active application of the computing device, a first timestamp of a first file of a private file system of the computing device, the first process associated with a first amount of main memory of the computing device, the first file having a first name, the private file system being accessible to the first process and a second process of the first application, the second process associated with a second amount of main memory greater than the first amount;
writing, by the one or more processors executing second instructions associated with the second process, to the private file system a second file having a second name and a second timestamp;
renaming, by the one or more processors executing the second instructions, the second file from the second name to the first name;
determining, by the one or more processors executing the first instructions, that the second file includes more recently updated data than data of the first file by comparing the first timestamp and the second timestamp;
and
receiving, by the one or more processors executing the first instructions, the second file to a portion of the main memory accessible to the first process and inaccessible to the second process.

3 more elements

A computing device, comprising:

one or more processors;
and
memory including a first portion of main memory associated with a first process of a first active application, a second portion of main memory greater than the first portion associated with a second process of the first application, and kernel instructions that, upon execution by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:
execute one or more first instructions associated with the first process of the first application to determine a first timestamp of a first file of a private file system of the computing device, the first file having a first name, the private file system being accessible to the first process and the second process of the first application;
execute one or more second instructions associated with the second process of the first application to write to the private file system a second file having a second name and a second timestamp and to rename the second file from the second name to the first name;
compare the first timestamp and the second timestamp to determine that the second file includes more recently updated data than data of the first file;
and
receive, by executing the first instructions associated with the first process of the first application, the second file to a portion of the main memory accessible to the first process and inaccessible to the second process.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.