Methods and systems for creating and communicating with computer processes

• US 20050132384A1
• Filed: 01/24/2005
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Padisetty, Sivaprasad V., Gopalan, Arvind, Morrison, Conor P.
• Application Number:
  US11/042,293
• Publication Number:
  US 20050132384A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/312
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Disclosed are mechanisms for creating and communicating with computer processes. An application programming interface (API) presents services of the system to applications. The API is usable with all processes, local and remote, and is transparent with respect to the location of processes. A process table stores information about processes created using the system. The process table supports centralized process control and peer-to-peer process communication and synchronization. Each process is assigned a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) that uniquely identifies the process no matter the computing device on which it runs. A parent UUID and a group UUID may be attached to the process and used for enforcing dependencies (e.g., for halting the process and all of its child processes) and for managing arbitrary, user-defined groups, respectively. A global event is associated with each process. When a process receives this event, it performs a controlled shutdown, cleans up, and reports status.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, the data structure comprising:

a first data field containing data representing a UUID associated with a process; and

a second data field containing data representing a process identifier associated with the process by an operating system.

2. The data structure of claim 1, further comprising:

a third data field comprising data representing a UUID associated with a parent process of the process.

3. The data structure of claim 1, further comprising:

a third data field comprising data representing a UUID associated with a group comprising the process.

4. The data structure of claim 1, further comprising:

a third data field comprising data representing a time of creation of the process;

a fourth data field comprising data representing the most recent time that the process logged a heartbeat; and

a fifth data field comprising data representing a type of the process.

5. The data structure of claim 1, further comprising:

a third data field comprising data representing an identity of a computing device on which the data structure resides; and

a fourth data field comprising data representing an identity of a computing device on which the process runs.

6. The data structure of claim 5, wherein the identities of the computing devices are represented by data in the set:

name, IP address.

7. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, the data structure comprising:

a first data field containing data representing a type of the new process;

a second data field containing data representing a UUID; and

a third data field containing data representing a command line to execute to initiate the process.

8. The data structure of claim 7, wherein the UUID is a NIL UUID.

9. The data structure of claim 7, further comprising:

a fourth data field comprising data representing a username to use when creating the process; and

a fifth data field comprising data representing a password to use when creating the process.

10. The data structure of claim 7, further comprising:

a fourth data field comprising data representing a directory in which to execute the process.

11. The data structure of claim 7, further comprising:

a fourth data field comprising data representing a UUID of a parent of the process.

12. The data structure of claim 7, further comprising:

a fourth data field comprising data representing a UUID of a group comprising the new process.

13. The data structure of claim 7, further comprising:

a fourth data field comprising data representing a computing device on which the process will run.

14. The data structure of claim 13, wherein the data representing the computing device are in the set:

name, IP address.