Inter-process communications employing bi-directional message conduits

• US 20060123424A1
• Filed: 12/07/2004
• Published: 06/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Abadi, Martin, Hunt, Galen C., Wobber, Edward P., Larus, James R., DeTreville, John D., Fahndrich, Manuel
• Granted Patent: US 7,600,232 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/547 Messaging middleware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

Described herein is an implementation of an inter-process communications technology. One or more implementations, described herein, facilitate creation of a bi-directional message conduit having exactly two endpoints. A first endpoint is owned by a first software process and a second endpoint is owned by a second software process. One or more implementations, described herein, maintain the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit from the first process to the second process, according to established rules that can be checked.

Claims

1. One or more processor-readable media having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform acts comprising:

facilitating establishment of a bi-directional message conduit having exactly two endpoints, a first endpoint being owned by a first software process and a second endpoint being owned by a second software process;

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit from the first process to the second process.

2. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the passing of multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit is constrained by a processor-readable contract, which defines a relationship between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

3. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the passing of multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit is constrained by a processor-readable contract, which defines a set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit and a description of an allowable sequences of message exchange between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

4. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the passing of multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit is constrained by a processor-readable contract, which defines a set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit and a description of an allowable sequences of message exchange between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit, wherein allowable sequences are finite.

5. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the passing of multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit is constrained by a processor-readable contract, which defines an allowed ordering of messages to be sent between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

6. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

facilitating establishment of a set of multiple additional bi-directional message conduits linking a network of software processes, each of the conduits of the set having exactly two endpoints with each endpoint being owned by, at most, one software process;

maintaining the set of multiple additional bi-directional message conduits for passing multiple messages from one of the software processes in the network to another software process in the network, wherein the multiple message messages are sent via multiple conduits of the set.

7. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

facilitating establishment of a set of multiple additional bidirectional message conduits linking a network of software processes, each of the conduits of the set having exactly two endpoints with each endpoint being owned by, at most, one software process;

maintaining the set of multiple additional bi-directional message conduits for passing multiple messages from one of the software processes in the network to another software process in the network, wherein the multiple message messages are sent via multiple conduits of the set;

facilitating passing, in a message, an endpoint of a bi-directional message conduit and passing the message via the set of multiple additional bi-directional message conduits linking a network of software processes.

8. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1 further comprising maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing one or more messages from the first process to the second process, the one or more messages containing a transfer of ownership of an endpoint of a bi-directional message conduit.

9. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1 further comprising maintaining the bidirectional message conduit for passing one or more messages from the first process to the second process, the one or more messages containing a transfer of ownership of an endpoint of a bi-directional message conduit and statically defining the state of the transferred endpoint within a processor-readable contract.

10. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein ownership of an endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit designates that an owning software process has a right to send or receive messages via the bi-directional message conduit.

11. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein ownership of an endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit designates that an owning software process has a right to send or receive messages via the bi-directional message conduit and the first endpoint owns a first endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit and its ownership is fixed, so that the first process'"'"'s ownership of the first endpoint cannot be transferred.

12. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1 further comprising facilitating a request by the first process for precise identification of the process that owns the other endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit.

13. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein ownership of an endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit designates that an owning software process has a right to send or receive messages via the bi-directional message conduit, the acts further comprising facilitating a request by the first process to fix ownership to one endpoint the bi-directional message conduit, so that ownership of the fixed endpoint cannot be transferred to another process.

14. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein ownership of an endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit designates that an owning software process has a right to send or receive messages via the bi-directional message conduit and the second process owns a second endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit, the acts further comprising facilitating a request by the second process for identification of an owner of a first endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit.

15. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein ownership of an endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit designates that an owning software process has a right to send or receive messages via the bi-directional message conduit and the second process owns a second endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit, the acts further comprising:

facilitating a request by the second process for identification of an owner of a first endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit;

facilitating a response to the second process from the owner of the first endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit, wherein such response only identifies the owner of the first endpoint when that owner'"'"'s ownership of the first endpoint is fixed.

16. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1 further comprising exposing primitive operations of a kernel of an operating system for invocation by the first software processes, primitive operations being basic functions of kernel that affect only the state of the invoking process, which is the first process.

17. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the second process is a high-level service of a kernel of an operating system.

18. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1 further comprising facilitating a request for creation of the bi-directional message conduit by the first software process, wherein both the first and the second endpoints are owned by the first software process.

19. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1 further comprising terminating the first software process if the bi-directional message conduit owned by the first process becomes unusable and the first process does not have access to any other usable bi-directional message conduit.

20. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are statically identified by a processor-readable contract.

21. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1;

wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are passed asynchronously.

22. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are sent in a defined order and are received in the same defined order.

23. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the multiple messages being passed via the bidirectional message conduit is encapsulated so that all data referenced by a message are themselves transferred when the message is passed.

24. One or more processor-readable media having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform acts comprising:

constructing a first process;

facilitating establishment of a bi-directional message conduit having exactly two endpoints, a first endpoint being owned by the first software process and a second endpoint being owned by a service of an operating system;

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for through which the first process requests access to functionality provided by the service of the operating system.

25. One or more processor-readable media having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform acts comprising:

facilitating establishment of a bi-directional message conduit configured to pass messages to and from a first software process from and to a second software process;

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit from the first process to the second process.

26. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 25, wherein the bi-directional message conduit has exactly two endpoints, each endpoint being owned by, at most, one software process.

27. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 25, wherein the bi-directional message conduit has exactly two endpoints, a first endpoint being owned by the first software process and a second endpoint being owned by the second software process.

28. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 25, wherein the second process is a service of a kernel of an operating system.

29. One or more processor-readable media having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform acts comprising:

facilitating establishment of a bi-directional message conduit configured to pass messages to and from a first software process from and to a second software process;

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bidirectional message conduit from the first process to the second process, the passing being constrained by a processor-readable contract, the contract defining a relationship between the first and second software processes with regard to the bi-directional message conduit.

30. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the bi-directional message conduit has exactly two endpoints, each endpoint being owned by, at most, one software process.

31. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the bi-directional message conduit has exactly two endpoints, a first endpoint being owned by the first software process and a second endpoint being owned by the second software process.

32. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the contract defines a set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit and a description of an allowable sequences of message exchange between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

33. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the contract defines an allowed ordering of messages to be sent between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

34. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29 further comprising maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing one or more messages from the first process to the second process, the one or more messages containing a transfer of ownership of an endpoint of a bi-directional message conduit.

35. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29 further comprising maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing one or more messages from the first process to the second process, the one or more messages containing a transfer of ownership of an endpoint of a bi-directional message conduit and containing information describing a current state of computation within the first software process.

36. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29 further comprising maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing one or more messages from the first process to the second process, the one or more messages containing a transfer of ownership of an endpoint of a bi-directional message conduit.

37. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, further comprising facilitating a request by a first process for precise identification of the process that owns the other endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit.

38. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, further comprising exposing primitive operations of a kernel of an operating system for invocation by the first software processes, primitive operations being basic functions of kernel that affect only the state of the invoking process, which is the first software process.

39. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the second process is a high-level service of a kernel of an operating system.

40. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29 further comprising facilitating a request for creation of the bi-directional message conduit by the first software process, wherein both the first and the second endpoints are owned by the first software process.

41. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29 further comprising terminating the first software process if the bi-directional message conduit when the first process becomes unusable and the first process does not have access to any other usable bi-directional message conduit.

42. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are statically identified within a processor-readable contract.

43. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are passed asynchronously.

44. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are sent in a defined order and are received in the same defined order.

45. One or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein each of the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit is encapsulated so that all data eferenced by a message are themselves transferred when the message is passed.

46. One or more processor-readable media having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform acts comprising:

facilitating a request by a first software process for creation of a bi-directional message conduit, the facilitating act comprising creating the requested bi-directional message conduit having exactly two endpoints which are both owned by the first software process;

facilitating establishment inter-process communication between the first process and a second process by passing one or more messages from the first software process to the second software process, wherein one or more passed messages contains a transfer of ownership of one of the endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

47. One or more processor-readable media having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, install an operating system on a computing system, the installed operating system having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform acts comprising:

providing communication mechanisms for software processes to communication with each other by message exchange, the providing act comprising;

facilitating establishment of a bi-directional message conduit having exactly two endpoints, each endpoint being owned by, at most, one software process;

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit between software processes;

exposing primitive operations of a kernel of an operating system for invocation by one or more software process, a primitive operation being a basic function of kernel that affects only the state of an invoking process that invoke the primitive operation.