Method and apparatus for assisting communication of information between two processes
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorRobert L Stewart
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus assists communication between a writer of a shared file and the reader of the shared file without requiring the use of a shared file. When the writer fills a buffer with information and provides a write commend to write the buffer to a shared file, the buffer is not written to a file. Instead, the pointer to the buffer is passed to the reader, and the writer may be suspended until the reader indicates it has read the file. Alternately, two buffers may be used, with the contents of the buffer used by the writer copied to a second buffer, allowing the writer to reuse the first buffer before the reader has completed reading the contents of the second buffer.
Claims24
A method of communicating information from a writer to a reader, the method comprising:
- a. receiving an identifier of a first buffer;
- b. receiving from a writer a command to write the information in the first buffer into a shared file that is shared by the writer and the reader;
- c. prior to writing any portion of the information responsive to the write command, suspending operation of the writer responsive to receipt of the write command and irrespective of the rate at which the information is written;
- d. receiving from the reader a command to read the shared file;
- e. providing to the reader an identifier of a second buffer;
- and
- f. allowing the writer to resume operation.
A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for communicating information from a writer to a reader, the computer program product comprising:
- a. computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to receive an identifier of a first buffer;
- b. computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to receive from a writer a command to write the information in the first buffer into a shared file that is shared by the writer and the reader;
- c. computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to, prior to writing any portion of the information responsive to the write command, suspend operation of the writer responsive to receipt of the write command and irrespective of the rate at which the information is written;
- d. computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to receive from the reader a command to read the shared file;
- e. computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to provide to the reader an identifier of a second buffer;
- and
- f. computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to allow the writer to resume operation.
An apparatus for communicating information from a writer to a reader, the apparatus comprising:
- means for receiving an identifier of a first buffer;
- means for receiving from a writer a command to write the information in the first buffer into a shared file that is shared by the writer and the reader;
- means for suspending operation of the writer, prior to writing any portion of the information responsive to the write command, responsive to receipt of the write command and irrespective of the rate at which the information is written;
- means for receiving from the reader a command to read the shared file;
- means for providing to the reader an identifier of a second buffer;
- and
- means for allowing the writer to resume operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.