Question

I am trying to understand how Boost memory mapped files work. The following code works, it does what it is supposed to do, but the problem is that the file it generates is stored on disk (in the same directory of the executable) instead of memory. Maybe there is a flag to set somewhere, but I could not find it…
Thanks in advance for any info!

    #include <iostream>
    #include <string>
    #include <cstring>
    #include <boost/iostreams/device/mapped_file.hpp>
    using std::cout;
    using std::endl;

    int main(int argc, char** argv) {
     const int blockSize = 64;
     bool writer = false;

     if(argc > 1) {
      if(!strcmp(argv[1], "w"))
       writer = true;
     }

     boost::iostreams::mapped_file_params  params;
     params.path = "map.dat";
    // params.length = 1024;     // default: all the file
     params.new_file_size = blockSize;

     if(writer) {
      cout << "Writer" << endl;
      params.mode = std::ios_base::out;
     }
     else {
      cout << "Reader" << endl;
      params.mode = std::ios_base::in;
     }

        boost::iostreams::mapped_file  mf;
        mf.open(params);

     if(writer)
     {
      char *block = mf.data();
      strcpy(block, "Test data block...\0");
      cout << "Written: " << block << endl;
     }
     else
     {
      cout << "Reading: " << mf.const_data() << endl;
     }

     mf.close();

        return 0;
    }
/*
    Compiler options: -Wall -I$(PATH_BOOST_INCLUDE) -ggdb
    Linker options: -L$(PATH_BOOST_LIBS) -lboost_iostreams-mt -lboost_system-mt -lboost_filesystem-mt -DBOOST_FILESYSTEM_NO_DEPRECATED
*/

Compiler used: gcc 4.2.1
Boost 1.41.0
OS: MacOS X 10.6.2

Answer 1

Memory mapping maps disk files into memory. There has to be a file on disk for this to happen!

Edit: From your comments, it sounds like you want to use shared memory – see http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_41_0/doc/html/interprocess/quick_guide.html