Inter-process communications employing bi-directional message conduits

• US 7,600,232 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2004
• Issued: 10/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fahndrich, Manuel, Abadi, Martin, Hunt, Galen C., Wobber, Edward P., Larus, James R., DeTreville, John D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough; Hyung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): WU, QING YUAN
• Application Number:
  US11/007,655
• Publication Number:
  US 20060123424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,764 Days
• Field of Search: 719312-317, 719/328, 719/330
• US Class Current: 719/313
• 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 computer storage media having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device having a processor and memory communicatively coupled to the processor, configure the computing device to perform acts comprising:

facilitating establishment of a bi-directional message conduit having exactly two endpoints, a first endpoint being directly connected to and owned by a first software process and a second endpoint being directly connected to and owned by a second software process, the first software process and the second software process being located within the memory of the computing device and executed within an operating system of the computing device; and

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit only between the first software process and the second software process, wherein;

the passing consists of passing the multiple messages only from one endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit to another endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit; and

the passing of multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit is constrained by a processor-readable contract having information that defines a relationship between the first and second software processes with regard to the bi-directional message conduit, the information comprising;

a set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit;

a description of allowable sequences of message exchange between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit; and

an allowed ordering of messages to be sent between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

2. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise:

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, wherein each of message conduits of the set is configured to only connect one of the software processes that owns one endpoint and another one of the software processes that owns another one endpoint; and

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.

3. One or more computer storage 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;

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

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

5. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1 further comprising maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing one or more messages from the first software process to the second software 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.

6. One or more computer storage 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.

7. One or more computer storage 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 ownership of the first endpoint is not transferable from the first software process.

8. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise facilitating a request by the first software process for precise identification of the process that owns the other endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit.

9. One or more computer storage 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 software process to fix ownership to one endpoint the bi-directional message conduit, so that ownership of the fixed endpoint is not transferable to another software process.

10. One or more computer storage 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 software process owns the second endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit, the acts further comprising facilitating a request by the second software process for identification of an owner of a first endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit.

11. One or more computer storage 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 software process owns the second endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit, the acts further comprising:

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

facilitating a response to the second software 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.

12. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise exposing primitive operations of a kernel of the 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.

13. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the second software process is a high-level service of a kernel of the operating system.

14. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise 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.

15. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise terminating the first software process if the bi-directional message conduit owned by the first software process becomes unusable and the first software process does not have access to any other usable bi-directional message conduit.

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

17. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are passed asynchronously.

18. One or more computer storage 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.

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

20. One or more computer storage media having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device having a processor and memory communicatively coupled to the processor, configure the computing device to perform acts comprising:

constructing a first software process for execution within an operating system of the computing device;

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 the operating system, wherein the bi-directional message conduit is configured to only connect the first software process and the service of the operating system;

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit only between the first software process and the service of the operating system, wherein;

the passing consists of passing the multiple messages only from one endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit to another endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit;

the passing is constrained by a processor-readable contract having information that defines a relationship between the first software process and the service of the operating system with regard to the bi-directional message conduit, the information comprising;

set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit;

description of allowable sequences of message exchange between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit; and

an allowed ordering of messages to be sent between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

21. A method comprising:

facilitating establishment of a bi-directional message conduit configured to connect a first software process and a second software process and pass messages to and from the first software process from and to the second software process, the first software process and the second software process being executed within an operating system of the computing device and located within the memory of the computing device; and

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit from the first software process to the second software process, wherein;

the passing consists of passing the multiple messages only between the first software process and the second software process to which the bi-directional message conduit is connected; and

the passing is constrained by a processor-readable contract having information that defines a relationship between the first and second software processes with regard to the bi-directional message conduit, the information comprising;

a set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit;

a description of allowable sequences of message exchange between two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit; and

an allowed ordering of messages to be sent between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the bi-directional message conduit has exactly two endpoints, each endpoint being owned by, at most, one software process.

23. The method as recited in claim 21, 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.

24. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the second software process is a service of a kernel of an operating system.

25. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors;

memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, the memory having stored thereon instructions that, when executed at the computing device, configure the computing device to perform acts comprising;

facilitating establishment of a bi-directional message conduit configured to connect a first software process and a second software process and pass messages to and from the first software process from and to the second software process, the first software process and the second software process being executed within an operating system of the computing device and located within the memory of the computing device; and

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit between the first software process and the second software process wherein;

the passing consists of passing the multiple messages only between the first software process and the second software process to which the bi-directional message conduit is connected; and

the passing is constrained by a processor-readable contract having information that defines a relationship between the first and second software processes with regard to the bi-directional message conduit, the information comprising;

a set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit;

a description of allowable sequences of message exchange between two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit; and

an allowed ordering of messages to be sent between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

26. The computing device 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. The computing device 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. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the acts further comprise maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing one or more messages from the first software process to the second software process, the one or more messages containing a transfer of ownership of an endpoint of a bi-directional message conduit.

29. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the acts further comprise maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing one or more messages from the first software process to the second software 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.

30. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the acts further comprise facilitating a request by a first software process for precise identification of the process that owns the other endpoint of the bi-directional message conduit.

31. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the acts further comprise 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.

32. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the second software process is a high-level service of a kernel of an operating system.

33. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the acts further comprise 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.

34. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the acts further comprise terminating the first software process if the bi-directional message conduit when the first software process becomes unusable and the first software process does not have access to any other usable bi-directional message conduit.

35. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are statically identified within the processor-readable contract.

36. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit are passed asynchronously.

37. The computing device as recited in claim 25, 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.

38. The computing device as recited in claim 25, wherein each of the multiple messages being passed via the bi-directional message conduit is encapsulated so that all data referenced by a message are themselves transferred when the message is passed.

39. A method of facilitating establishment of inter-process communication between a first software process and a second software process executed within an operating system of a computing device, the method being implemented at the computing device and comprising:

facilitating a request by the 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, the first software process and the second software process being executed within the operating system of the computing device and located within the memory of the computing device; and

facilitating, at the computing device, establishment of inter-process communication between the first software process and the second software 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; and

the passing is constrained by a processor-readable contract having information that defines a relationship between the first software process and the second software processes with regard to the bi-directional message conduit, the information comprising;

a set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit;

a description of allowable sequences of message exchange between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit; and

an allowed ordering of messages to be sent between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit.

40. A method of facilitating establishment of inter-process communication between a first software process and a second software process executed within an operating system of a computing device, the method being implemented at the computing device and comprising:

providing, at the computing device, communication mechanisms for software processes to communicate 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, the bi-directional message conduit directly connecting the software processes owning the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit; and

maintaining the bi-directional message conduit for passing multiple messages via the bi-directional message conduit between the software processes that are connected by the bi-directional message conduit, wherein the passing is constrained by a processor-readable contract having information that defines a relationship between the software processes with regard to the bi-directional message conduit, wherein the information comprises;

a set of message types that are allowed to be sent through the bi-directional message conduit;

a description of allowable sequences of message exchange between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit; and

an allowed ordering of messages to be sent between the two endpoints of the bi-directional message conduit; and

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.