Interprocess Communication and Resource Controls

Processes can communicate with each other by using one of several types of interprocess communication (IPC). IPC allows information transfer or synchronization to occur between processes. Prior to the Solaris 10 release, IPC tunable parameters were set by adding an entry to the /etc/system file. The resource controls facility now provides resource controls that define the behavior of the kernel's IPC facilities. These resource controls replace the /etc/system tunables.

Obsolete parameters might be included in the /etc/system file on this Solaris system. If so, the parameters are used to initialize the default resource control values as in previous Solaris releases. However, using the obsolete parameters is not recommended.

To observe which IPC objects are contributing to a project's usage, use the ipcs command with the -J option. See How to Use ipcs to view an example display. For more information about the ipcs command, see ipcs(1).

For information about Solaris system tuning, see the Oracle Solaris Tunable Parameters Reference Manual.