In This Chapter
Introduction to GNU/Linux Semaphores
Discussion of Binary and Counting Semaphores
Creating and Configuring Semaphores
Acquiring and Releasing Semaphores
Single Semaphores or Semaphore Arrays
The ipcs and ipcrm Utilities for Semaphores
In this chapter, we ll explore the topic of semaphores. GNU/Linux provides both binary and counting semaphores using the same POSIX compliant API function set. We ll also investigate semaphores in GNU/Linux and their similarities with some of the other IPC (inter-process communication) mechanisms.