Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!EVAX.ARL.UTEXAS.EDU!OMKAR.P..RATH
From: OMKAR.P..RATH@EVAX.ARL.UTEXAS.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Help needed on Socket Programming! (Sorry if this is a repeat)
Message-ID: <8906230037.AA26315@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 22 Jun 89 18:43:32 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 44


To TCP/IP Internetworking Gurus:

I am a Master's student at the U of Texas at Arlington.

I have a question about "socket programming" under the 4.2 BSD Unix system.
You can call me a novice in the field of systems programming at the network
level.  I browsed thru the different Users Groups and found yours to be the
closest thing that could possibly help me.

The Query:
----------
I have been assigned the job of implementing the "transport layer" for a 
particular distributed application.  This will constitute a set of processes
running on each of the nodes.  Needless to say these processes will need to
"talk" to each other.  However the "talking" occurs only sparingly and rest
of the time the processes are busy doing other things of higher importance.

What I'm looking for is a "non-blocking" message passing kind of mechanism
where the processes can deposit messages into other processes' "mailboxes"
and continue on their own.  I understand the theory but when it comes to the 
implementation I'm stuck.  Can a process "deposit" a message in another process'
"mailbox" while the latter process is say servicing a User input? (Sort of
like getting interrupted and coming back.)

Question 1: Any suggestions, ideas, references?

IPC primitives by way of using sockets seems to be the way to go.  I came 
across a System V manual by AT&T called "Network Programmers Guide"
(ISBN # 0-13-940461-9) which explains just the kind of thing that I'm looking
for (ref. CH 6).

Question 2: We here at the Univ. of Texas @ Arlington have SUN 3/50(60) work-
stations running 4.2 BSD.  Does any one know of a "Network Programmers
Guide" or manual for the 4.2 BSD?

Those of you who are into this sort of thing will at once know what I'm
talking about.  Thanks in advance for your time.

Sincerely,

Omkar Rath
CS_RATH@EVAX.ARL.UTEXAS.EDU
Internet Address: 129.107.2.1