Method and system for optionally registering a local process to allow participation in a single system semantic

• US 5,544,316 A
• Filed: 06/07/1995
• Issued: 08/06/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Claussen, Christopher S., Carpenter, Eric R., Cox, James O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Treat, William M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US08/483,783
• Time in Patent Office: 426 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.03, 395/700, 395/650, 395/600
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

A method and system for providing communications services between multiple processes running in multiple computer systems is provided. A single system semantic can be used to access processes, whether such processes reside on a local or remote computer. A mechanism is provided to allow processes to register as part of a distributed context. Registration may be accomplished explicitly by any child process to name its parent in the hierarchy, or automatically by the parent process when spawning children. This mechanism allows the additional flexibility that destination nodes in the distributed environment may be selected at run time without requiring knowledge on the part of the executing process. This allows the ability to cause processes to be distributed based on machine type, facilities available on a specific node or load balancing considerations. This registration mechanism is expandable to allow general purpose server implementations in a distributed environment, thus providing to the user system transparent facilities for control in a distributed environment.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for allowing a plurality of computer child processes, each initiated by one of a plurality of computer parent processes, to participate in a single system semantic across a distributed data processing system having a plurality of machines, wherein at least one child process is initiated by a parent process executing on a remote machine, each machine executing a control daemon, comprising the steps of:

requesting registration by each local process with a corresponding local control daemon executing on the machine where the requesting process will be executing;

generating and recording in local memory by each local control daemon a handle for each process requesting registration;

determining by each local control daemon if each process requesting registration has a remote parent process;

if a first child process requesting registration with a first control daemon has a parent process executing on a remote machine with a remote control daemon, recording in memory by the first control daemon the handle assigned by the remote control daemon for the parent process and the remote machine executing the parent process;

if the first child process has a remote parent process, recording in memory the local control daemon as a local parent process of the first child process; and

if the first process has a remote parent process, recording in remote memory by the remote control daemon the handle assigned by the first control daemon for the first child process and the machine executing the first child process.