Question

I have 2 programs(client and server) which communicates using ipc. Basically client sends some data at the server and they work at the same computer. I want the client to wait for server process to start if it does not already started but not quite understand how to achieve this. I think of using 2 events(one which is created my client and one created by server) and wrap both calls to waits for these events in critical section. What you will suggest?

Answer 1

How does the IPC work? I assume NamedPipes, but the idea is the same for me. I had to do something like that in the past and did roughly this:

• Client starts, connects to IPC server (assuming NamedPipes. Shouldn’t matter)

• Connection fails, client recovers by triggering a server start (this can be handled in lots of ways, from executing the server binary from a known location to using trigger started services)

• Server starts and as one of the first thing claims the IPC address (or a global mutex if you like that one better). If multiple server processes are started from multiple clients, the first one wins and the others just die again.

• Client retries after an appropriate time