Overview: creating IPC channels

There are two methods for creating IPC channels: static and dynamic.

Static creation of IPC channels is simpler to implement because you can use the init description for this purpose.

Dynamic creation of IPC channels lets you change the topology of interaction between processes on the fly. This is necessary if it is unknown which specific server contains the endpoint required by the client. For example, you may not know which specific drive you will need to write data to.

Statically creating an IPC channel

The static method has the following distinguishing characteristics:

• The client and server are in the stopped state when the IPC channel is created.
• Creation of this channel is initiated by the parent process that starts the client and server (this is normally Einit).
• The created IPC channel cannot be deleted.
• To get the IPC handle and endpoint ID (riid) after the IPC channel is created, the client and server must use the endpoint locator interface (coresrv/sl/sl_api.h).

Dynamically creating an IPC channel

The dynamic method has the following distinguishing characteristics:

• The client and server are already running at the time of creating the IPC channel.
• Creation of the channel is initiated jointly by the client and server.
• The created IPC channel can be deleted.
• The client and server get the IPC handle and endpoint ID (riid) immediately after the IPC channel is successfully created.