shared memory folder in Mac error shm: Invalid argument - c

I usually code C in linux. I am using now a Mac and I am new on this machine.
In linux when I use shared memory between process, the memory is allocated as a file which pathname is /dev/shm/resource_name.
I was trying a simple code and suddenly I got an error.
It wasn't able to call a function destroy() to destroy the shared memory.
Usually when this happens I delete the file manually on the directory.
My question is: Where is located the shared memory in OS X. Because when I try recompile and execute, the gcc compiler tells me that the resource already exists and I don't know how to delete it.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <semaphore.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int increment (int n)
{
n = n + 1;
printf ("%d\n", n);
return n;
}
int *create ()
{
int *ptr;
int ret;
int fd= shm_open ("/shm", O_RDWR | O_CREAT, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);
if (fd == -1) {
perror ("shm");
exit (1);
}
ret = ftruncate (fd, sizeof (int));
if (ret == -1) {
perror ("shm");
exit (2);
}
ptr = mmap (0, sizeof (int), PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
if (ptr == MAP_FAILED) {
perror ("shm-mmap");
exit (3);
}
return ptr;
}
void destroy (int *ptr)
{
int ret;
ret = munmap (ptr, sizeof (int));
if (ret == -1) {
perror ("shm");
exit (7);
}
ret = shm_unlink ("shm");
if (ret == -1) {
perror ("shm");
exit (8);
}
}
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
sem_t *semaphore;
int *ptr = create ();
int numProcessesChilds, numIncrements;
int i;
if (argc == 3) {
numProcessesChilds = atoi (argv [1]);
numIncrements = atoi (argv [2]);
}
else {
numProcessesChilds = 10;
numIncrements = 1;
}
*ptr = 0;
semaphore = sem_open("/semaphore", O_CREAT, 0xFFFFFFFF, 1);
if (semaphore == SEM_FAILED) {
perror("semaphore");
}
for (i = 0; i < numProcessesChilds; i++) {
switch (fork ()) {
case -1:
perror ("fork");
exit (1);
case 0:
sem_wait(semaphore);
for (i = 0 ; i < numIncrements; i++) {
(*ptr) = increment (*ptr);
}
sem_post(semaphore);
exit (0);
}
}
for (i = 0; i < numProcessesChilds; i++) {
wait (NULL);
}
sem_close(semaphore);
sem_unlink("/semaphore");
printf ("Fina value: %d\n", *ptr);
destroy (ptr);
return 0;
}

Answered here, Mac OS being derived from BSD does not expose any entry in the file system for shared memory objects. The corresponding files in /dev/shm are Linux specific.
Under Mac OS, only shm_unlink() will do the cleanup job. The OP's example program should work upon each startup as it passes O_CREAT flag to shm_open(). If the shared memory object does not already exist, it is created otherwise it is opened as it is. As the resulting memory area pointed by ptr is reset with the instruction *ptr = 0 at the beginning of the program, everything should work properly.

Mac OS X , like linux is UNIX based so it handles the shared memory just like Linux. The shared memory segments you allocate are also files located in /dev/shm
To destroy the shared memory you can use the command ipcs -m or ipcs -M to view all the shared memory, look for yours and then execute ipcrm -m shmid where shmid would be the id of your shared memory. You can also do ipcrm -M shmkey using the key you assigned to it

Related

Process-shared condition variable : how to recover after one process dies?

I'm working on a simple FIFO queue to synchronize multiple instances of a server process.
This is very similar to
Linux synchronization with FIFO waiting queue, except dealing with multiple processes instead of threads. I adapted caf's ticket lock to use process-shared mutex and condition variable from a shared memory segment. It also handles timeouts in case one process dies while processing a request:
#include <assert.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <errno.h>
static inline void fail(char *str)
{
perror(str);
exit(1);
}
/***************************************************************************************************/
/* Simple ticket lock queue with pthreads
* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3050083/linux-synchronization-with-fifo-waiting-queue
*/
typedef struct ticket_lock {
pthread_mutex_t mutex;
pthread_cond_t cond;
int queue_head, queue_tail;
} ticket_lock_t;
static void
ticket_init(ticket_lock_t *t)
{
pthread_mutexattr_t mattr;
pthread_mutexattr_init(&mattr);
pthread_mutexattr_setpshared(&mattr, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED);
pthread_mutexattr_setrobust(&mattr, PTHREAD_MUTEX_ROBUST);
pthread_mutex_init(&t->mutex, &mattr);
pthread_mutexattr_destroy(&mattr);
pthread_condattr_t cattr;
pthread_condattr_init(&cattr);
pthread_condattr_setpshared(&cattr, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED);
pthread_cond_init(&t->cond, &cattr);
pthread_condattr_destroy(&cattr);
t->queue_head = t->queue_tail = 0;
}
static void
ticket_broadcast(ticket_lock_t *ticket)
{
pthread_cond_broadcast(&ticket->cond);
}
static int
ticket_lock(ticket_lock_t *ticket)
{
pthread_mutex_lock(&ticket->mutex);
int queue_me = ticket->queue_tail++;
while (queue_me > ticket->queue_head) {
time_t sec = time(NULL) + 5; /* 5s timeout */
struct timespec ts = { .tv_sec = sec, .tv_nsec = 0 };
fprintf(stderr, "%i: waiting, current: %i me: %i\n", getpid(), ticket->queue_head, queue_me);
if (pthread_cond_timedwait(&ticket->cond, &ticket->mutex, &ts) == 0)
continue;
if (errno != ETIMEDOUT) fail("pthread_cond_timedwait");
/* Timeout, kick current user... */
fprintf(stderr, "kicking stale ticket %i\n", ticket->queue_head);
ticket->queue_head++;
ticket_broadcast(ticket);
}
pthread_mutex_unlock(&ticket->mutex);
return queue_me;
}
static void
ticket_unlock(ticket_lock_t *ticket, int me)
{
pthread_mutex_lock(&ticket->mutex);
if (ticket->queue_head == me) { /* Normal case: we haven't timed out. */
ticket->queue_head++;
ticket_broadcast(ticket);
}
pthread_mutex_unlock(&ticket->mutex);
}
/***************************************************************************************************/
/* Shared memory */
#define SHM_NAME "fifo_sched"
#define SHM_MAGIC 0xdeadbeef
struct sched_shm {
int size;
int magic;
int ready;
/* sched stuff */
ticket_lock_t queue;
};
static unsigned int shm_size = 256;
static struct sched_shm *shm = 0;
/* Create new shared memory segment */
static void
create_shm()
{
int fd = shm_open(SHM_NAME, O_RDWR | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC, 0644);
assert(fd != -1);
int r = ftruncate(fd, shm_size); assert(r == 0);
void *pt = mmap(0, shm_size, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
assert(pt != MAP_FAILED);
fprintf(stderr, "Created shared memory.\n");
shm = pt;
memset(shm, 0, sizeof(*shm));
shm->size = shm_size;
shm->magic = SHM_MAGIC;
shm->ready = 0;
ticket_init(&shm->queue);
shm->ready = 1;
}
/* Attach existing shared memory segment */
static int
attach_shm()
{
int fd = shm_open(SHM_NAME, O_RDWR, 0);
if (fd == -1) return 0; /* Doesn't exist yet... */
shm = mmap(0, shm_size, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
if (shm == MAP_FAILED) fail("mmap");
fprintf(stderr, "Mapped shared memory.\n");
assert(shm->magic == SHM_MAGIC);
assert(shm->ready);
return 1;
}
static void
shm_init()
{
fprintf(stderr, "shm_init()\n");
assert(shm_size >= sizeof(struct sched_shm));
if (!attach_shm())
create_shm();
}
/***************************************************************************************************/
int main()
{
shm_init();
while (1) {
int ticket = ticket_lock(&shm->queue);
printf("%i: start %i\n", getpid(), ticket);
printf("%i: done %i\n", getpid(), ticket);
ticket_unlock(&shm->queue, ticket);
}
return 0;
}
This works well standalone and while adding extra processes:
$ gcc -g -Wall -std=gnu99 -o foo foo.c -lpthread -lrt
$ ./foo
$ ./foo # (in other term)
...
26370: waiting, current: 134803 me: 134804
26370: start 134804
26370: done 134804
26370: waiting, current: 134805 me: 134806
26370: start 134806
26370: done 134806
26370: waiting, current: 134807 me: 134808
However killing the 2nd instance breaks pthread_cond_timedwait() in the 1st:
pthread_cond_timedwait: No such file or directory
Which makes sense in a way, the condition variable was tracking this process and it's not there anymore.
Surely there must be a way to recover from this ?
[too long for a comment]
pthread_cond_timedwait: No such file or directory
Hu! :-)
The pthread_*() family of functions does not set errno to any error code but returns it.
So to get any usable results change this
if (pthread_cond_timedwait(&ticket->cond, &ticket->mutex, &ts) == 0)
continue;
if (errno != ETIMEDOUT) fail("pthread_cond_timedwait");
to be
if ((errno = pthread_cond_timedwait(&ticket->cond, &ticket->mutex, &ts)) == 0)
continue;
if (errno != ETIMEDOUT) fail("pthread_cond_timedwait");
Ok, quoting posix pthread_mutex_lock() reference:
If mutex is a robust mutex and the process containing the owning thread terminated while holding the mutex lock, a call to pthread_mutex_lock() shall return the error value [EOWNERDEAD]. [...] In these cases, the mutex is locked by the thread but the state it protects is marked as inconsistent. The application should ensure that the state is made consistent for reuse and when that is complete call pthread_mutex_consistent(). If the application is unable to recover the state, it should unlock the mutex without a prior call to pthread_mutex_consistent(), after which the mutex is marked permanently unusable.
So in addition to alk's comment to robustly handle processes dying with the mutex locked we need to watch for EOWNERDEAD when calling pthread_mutex_lock() and pthread_cond_timedwait(), and call pthread_mutex_consistent() on it.
Something like:
if ((errno = pthread_cond_timedwait(&ticket->cond, &ticket->mutex, &ts)) == 0)
continue;
if (errno == EOWNERDEAD) /* Recover mutex owned by dead process */
pthread_mutex_consistent(&ticket->mutex);
else if (errno != ETIMEDOUT)
fail("pthread_cond_timedwait");

How to use shm_open with mmap properly

I am trying to create a shared memory area using examples and documentation I found online. My goal is IPC , so I can make different processes talk to each other.
This my C file
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <errno.h>
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
struct stat sb;
off_t len;
char *p;
int fd;
fd = shm_open("test", O_RDWR | O_CREAT); //,S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);
if (fd == -1) {
perror("open");
return 1;
}
if (fstat(fd, &sb)==-1){
perror("fstat");
return 1;
}
/*if (!S_ISREG(sb.st_mode)){
fprintf(stderr, "%s is not a file\n",fileName);
return 1;
}*/
p = mmap(0, sb.st_size, PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
if (p == MAP_FAILED){
perror("mmap");
return 1;
}
if (close(fd)==-1) {
perror("close");
return 1;
}
for (len = 0; len < sb.st_size; len++) {
putchar(p[len]);
}
if (munmap(p, sb.st_size) == -1) {
perror("munmao");
return 1;
}
fprintf(stderr,"\n");
return 0;
}
The problem is that I am getting a mmap: Invalid argument. I assume something is wrong with fd but have no clue how to fix it, any help would be appreciated. I am on Yosemite using latest XCODE .
You need to extend the size of the shared memory mapping, at least the first time when you create it. Right now its size is 0, and mmap is not going to allow you to make a zero length mapping.
So instead of your fstat() call, do e.g.:
size_t len = 4096;
if (ftruncate(fd, len) == -1) {
perror("ftruncate");
return 1;
}
And pass this len to mmap().
Your addr parameter is set to 0, which might be reserved. Did you mean to use NULL? This would be different than 0.

dlclose does not close library open file handles

I am dynamically loading a library with dlopen, then closing it with dlclose. I expected all library resources to be freed once dlclose completed, but there are still open file descriptors from the library after the dlclose call. I am wondering how to make sure a library is unloaded in the middle of program execution, such that it cleans up all of its resources.
My code is below:
#include <CL/cl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <dlfcn.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <dirent.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#define MAX_PATH_LENGTH 80
int deviceQ()
{
cl_int ret;
void * libHandle = dlopen("/usr/lib64/libOpenCL.so", RTLD_LAZY);
cl_int (* clGetPlatformIDs)(cl_uint, cl_platform_id*, cl_uint*) = dlsym(
libHandle, "clGetPlatformIDs"
);
cl_int (* clGetDeviceIDs)(cl_platform_id, cl_device_type, cl_uint, cl_device_id*, cl_uint*) =
dlsym(libHandle, "clGetDeviceIDs");
/********************** PREAMBLE **************************************/
cl_device_id device_id = NULL;
cl_platform_id platform_id = NULL;
cl_uint ret_num_devices;
cl_uint ret_num_platforms;
ret = clGetPlatformIDs(1, &platform_id, &ret_num_platforms);
if (ret != CL_SUCCESS) {
perror("Failed to get platform IDs");
} else if (ret_num_platforms != 1) {
fprintf(stderr, "Number of platforms returned is %d\n", ret_num_platforms);
exit(1);
}
printf("Read platform IDs\n");
ret = clGetDeviceIDs(platform_id, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU, 1, &device_id,
&ret_num_devices);
if (ret != CL_SUCCESS) {
perror("Failed to get device IDs");
} else if (ret_num_devices != 1) {
fprintf(stderr, "Number of returned devices is %d\n", ret_num_devices);
exit(1);
}
printf("Read device IDs\n");
/********************** PREAMBLE **************************************/
/***************** RELEASE AND FREE ****************************/
dlclose(libHandle);
/***************** RELEASE AND FREE ****************************/
return 0;
}
size_t closeFileDescriptors(void ** arr) {
// step 1 - get PID
pid_t pid = getpid();
//printf("PID is %d\n", pid);
char path[MAX_PATH_LENGTH];
memset(path, '\0', MAX_PATH_LENGTH);
sprintf(path, "/proc/%d/fd", pid);
int fd;
DIR * d = opendir(path);
struct dirent *dir;
struct stat s;
char dirPath[MAX_PATH_LENGTH];
char realPath[MAX_PATH_LENGTH];
size_t index = 0;
if (d) {
while ((dir = readdir(d)) != NULL) {
if (strcmp(dir->d_name, ".") != 0 &&
strcmp(dir->d_name, "..") != 0) {
fd = atoi(dir->d_name);
if (fstat(fd, &s) != 0) {
perror("fstat failed");
}
memset(dirPath, '\0', MAX_PATH_LENGTH);
strcpy(dirPath, path);
strcat(dirPath, "/");
strcat(dirPath, dir->d_name);
#ifdef S_IFLNK
if (s.st_mode & S_IFLNK) {
#else
if (S_ISLNK(s.st_mode)) {
#endif
memset(realPath, '\0', MAX_PATH_LENGTH);
#ifdef readlink
readlink(dirPath, realPath, MAX_PATH_LENGTH);
printf("%s -> %s\n", dirPath, realPath);
#else
printf("[readlink not defined] %s\n", dirPath);
#endif
} else {
printf("Not link: %s (proceeding anyway)\n", dirPath);
//printf("Not link: %s (ignoring)\n", dirPath);
//continue;
}
if (fd > 2) {
//int fdFlags = fcntl(fd, F_GETFD);
int fdFlags = fcntl(fd, F_GETFL);
if (fdFlags == -1) {
perror("fcntl failed");
}
//off_t offset = lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_CUR);
off_t offset = 0;
if (offset == -1) {
perror("lseek failed");
}
if (arr != NULL) {
/*
arr[index] = (fileData *) malloc(sizeof (fileData));
arr[index]->flags = fdFlags;
arr[index]->offset = offset;
arr[index]->fd = fd;
strcpy(arr[index]->fdPath, realPath);*/
}
index++;
// ignore stdin, stdout, stderr
printf("Closing FD %d (flags %d, offset %zd)\n",
fd, fdFlags, offset);
close(fd);
}
}
}
closedir(d);
} else {
fprintf(stderr, "Could not open directory %s\n", path);
}
return index;
}
int main () {
deviceQ();
printf("=> Closing open file descriptors\n");
closeFileDescriptors (NULL);
deviceQ();
return 0;
}
Your expectation is wrong. When you call dlclose(3), only the "plugin" (actually shared object) is "closed" (actually, may be munmap-ed), but not the resources (in particular the file descriptors, and possibly heap allocated memory) it has used.
In addition, on Linux specifically, dlclose is calling the so-called destructor functions of the plugin (those declared with __attribute__((destructor)), read about function attributes in GCC).
If you are coding a shared library, you might design it so that some resources are released at dlclose time (by having appropriate finalizations run thru destructor functions). In general, it is not easily possible (and it should be a documented convention).
Resources like address space in virtual memory (obtained by mmap(2) etc...) and file descriptors (obtained by open(2), socket(2), pipe(2) etc etc...) are global (and common) to the entire process.
So it would be possible (and legitimate, if documented) to acquire some resource (e.g. open some file descriptor) in one shared library and to release it in another one (or in the main program).
Since a resource "belongs" to the entire process, it makes no sense to speak of releasing the resources acquired by a library.
So your closeFileDescriptors is quite probably a huge mistake (and it probably leaks some other resources).
(IIRC, OpenCL API has some way to release its resources, e.g. devices, contexts, kernels, etc.... But I forgot the ugly details; see clReleaseContext, clReleaseMemObject and many more, including some implementation specific ones.)
Reading more about garbage collection would probably widen your mind.
Read also Drepper's paper: How To Write a Shared Library & credentials(7)
If you absolutely need to release OpenCL related resources early, a more sensible way might be to start a different child process dedicated to OpenCL things, and use clever IPC mechanisms (e.g. pipe(7), shm_overview(7), sem_overview(7), etc...) then terminate (properly) that child process once your OpenCL stuff is done. You take advantage of the fact that the kernel is cleaning all the resources used by a defunct process (don't forget to wait... it -e.g. using waitpid(2)- to avoid having zombie processes). If you are not familiar with all that, read Advanced Linux Programming first.

Can't add an array with data to shared memory

I am trying to write a file with data into my shared memory segment. However everything I have tried seems just to give the error Segmentation fault. I have been searching the internet for help for more then one day.
int main(int argc, char *argv[]).
{
int sm;
char *data;
int pid=atoi(argv[1]);
int key=atoi(argv[2]);
char (*d)[1025];
data=(char*) malloc(1025);
//put the data in the shared memory segment
FILE *file=fopen(argv[3], "r"); //r for read
if (file==0)
{printf("Could not open file");}
else
{
while(fgets(data, 1025, file)!=NULL)
{
fputs(data, file);
// puts(d);
}
fclose(file);
}
//access shared memory
//S_IWUSR gives owner the write permession
sm = shmget(key, 1024, S_IWUSR);
//create a pointer to the shared memory segment
d = shmat(sm, (void *)0, 0); //shared memory id, shmaddr, shmflg
//for (int j=0; j<100; j++)
strcpy(d[0], data);
shmdt(d); //detach the shared memory segment
//remove the shared memory segment
shmctl(sm, IPC_RMID, NULL);
}
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance
EDIT: added malloc
EDIT2: maybe I should rephrase my question, my problem is to get the data into my shared memory
+1 about rjayavrp answer
And I can add that data is not allocated... This is just a pointer and not a array of chars..
Moreover what are you trying to do with
char (*d)[1025];
A quick and dirty example :
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
#define SIZE_SHARED_MEMORY 1024
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int sm = -1;
char *d = NULL;
FILE *file = NULL;
key_t key = 0;
int ret = 0;
if (argc != 4)
{
return 1;
}
key = atoi(argv[2]);
//access shared memory
sm = shmget(key, SIZE_SHARED_MEMORY, IPC_CREAT | 0600);
if (sm == -1)
{
perror("shmget : Failed");
return 2;
}
//create a pointer to the shared memory segment
d = shmat(sm, (char *)0, 0);
if (d == (void *)-1)
{
perror("shmat : Failed");
return 3;
}
// Open the file
file = fopen(argv[3], "r");
if (file == NULL)
{
perror("fopen : Failed");
ret = 4;
}
else
{
if(fgets(d, SIZE_SHARED_MEMORY, file) == NULL)
{
perror("fgets : Failed");
ret = 5;
}
fclose(file);
}
shmdt(d); //detach the shared memory segment
// remove the shared memory segment ???
// Don't understand why you are doing this
shmctl(sm, IPC_RMID, NULL);
return ret;
}
File is opened in read mode only.
change it to rw+ which will open a file in read/write mode. If the file is not available, it will be created.
fputs(data, file); here file is opened in read-only mode but write is happening.
But Im not sure, why you trying to write the read data to same file. You should consider your design first. 2. char (*d)[1025]; is a pointer to an char array of size 1025. You are using it in strcpy(). 3. memory should be allocated for data either statically or dynamically.

How to use shared memory with Linux in C

I have a bit of an issue with one of my projects.
I have been trying to find a well documented example of using shared memory with fork() but to no success.
Basically the scenario is that when the user starts the program, I need to store two values in shared memory: current_path which is a char* and a file_name which is also char*.
Depending on the command arguments, a new process is kicked off with fork() and that process needs to read and modify the current_path variable stored in shared memory while the file_name variable is read only.
Is there a good tutorial on shared memory with example code (if possible) that you can direct me to?
There are two approaches: shmget and mmap. I'll talk about mmap, since it's more modern and flexible, but you can take a look at man shmget (or this tutorial) if you'd rather use the old-style tools.
The mmap() function can be used to allocate memory buffers with highly customizable parameters to control access and permissions, and to back them with file-system storage if necessary.
The following function creates an in-memory buffer that a process can share with its children:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
void* create_shared_memory(size_t size) {
// Our memory buffer will be readable and writable:
int protection = PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE;
// The buffer will be shared (meaning other processes can access it), but
// anonymous (meaning third-party processes cannot obtain an address for it),
// so only this process and its children will be able to use it:
int visibility = MAP_SHARED | MAP_ANONYMOUS;
// The remaining parameters to `mmap()` are not important for this use case,
// but the manpage for `mmap` explains their purpose.
return mmap(NULL, size, protection, visibility, -1, 0);
}
The following is an example program that uses the function defined above to allocate a buffer. The parent process will write a message, fork, and then wait for its child to modify the buffer. Both processes can read and write the shared memory.
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main() {
char parent_message[] = "hello"; // parent process will write this message
char child_message[] = "goodbye"; // child process will then write this one
void* shmem = create_shared_memory(128);
memcpy(shmem, parent_message, sizeof(parent_message));
int pid = fork();
if (pid == 0) {
printf("Child read: %s\n", shmem);
memcpy(shmem, child_message, sizeof(child_message));
printf("Child wrote: %s\n", shmem);
} else {
printf("Parent read: %s\n", shmem);
sleep(1);
printf("After 1s, parent read: %s\n", shmem);
}
}
Here is an example for shared memory :
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
#define SHM_SIZE 1024 /* make it a 1K shared memory segment */
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
key_t key;
int shmid;
char *data;
int mode;
if (argc > 2) {
fprintf(stderr, "usage: shmdemo [data_to_write]\n");
exit(1);
}
/* make the key: */
if ((key = ftok("hello.txt", 'R')) == -1) /*Here the file must exist */
{
perror("ftok");
exit(1);
}
/* create the segment: */
if ((shmid = shmget(key, SHM_SIZE, 0644 | IPC_CREAT)) == -1) {
perror("shmget");
exit(1);
}
/* attach to the segment to get a pointer to it: */
if ((data = shmat(shmid, NULL, 0)) == (void *)-1) {
perror("shmat");
exit(1);
}
/* read or modify the segment, based on the command line: */
if (argc == 2) {
printf("writing to segment: \"%s\"\n", argv[1]);
strncpy(data, argv[1], SHM_SIZE);
} else
printf("segment contains: \"%s\"\n", data);
/* detach from the segment: */
if (shmdt(data) == -1) {
perror("shmdt");
exit(1);
}
return 0;
}
Steps :
Use ftok to convert a pathname and a project identifier to a System V IPC key
Use shmget which allocates a shared memory segment
Use shmat to attache the shared memory segment identified by shmid to the address space of the calling process
Do the operations on the memory area
Detach using shmdt
These are includes for using shared memory
#include<sys/ipc.h>
#include<sys/shm.h>
int shmid;
int shmkey = 12222;//u can choose it as your choice
int main()
{
//now your main starting
shmid = shmget(shmkey,1024,IPC_CREAT);
// 1024 = your preferred size for share memory
// IPC_CREAT its a flag to create shared memory
//now attach a memory to this share memory
char *shmpointer = shmat(shmid,NULL);
//do your work with the shared memory
//read -write will be done with the *shmppointer
//after your work is done deattach the pointer
shmdt(&shmpointer, NULL);
try this code sample, I tested it, source: http://www.makelinux.net/alp/035
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
int main ()
{
int segment_id;
char* shared_memory;
struct shmid_ds shmbuffer;
int segment_size;
const int shared_segment_size = 0x6400;
/* Allocate a shared memory segment. */
segment_id = shmget (IPC_PRIVATE, shared_segment_size,
IPC_CREAT | IPC_EXCL | S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);
/* Attach the shared memory segment. */
shared_memory = (char*) shmat (segment_id, 0, 0);
printf ("shared memory attached at address %p\n", shared_memory);
/* Determine the segment's size. */
shmctl (segment_id, IPC_STAT, &shmbuffer);
segment_size = shmbuffer.shm_segsz;
printf ("segment size: %d\n", segment_size);
/* Write a string to the shared memory segment. */
sprintf (shared_memory, "Hello, world.");
/* Detach the shared memory segment. */
shmdt (shared_memory);
/* Reattach the shared memory segment, at a different address. */
shared_memory = (char*) shmat (segment_id, (void*) 0x5000000, 0);
printf ("shared memory reattached at address %p\n", shared_memory);
/* Print out the string from shared memory. */
printf ("%s\n", shared_memory);
/* Detach the shared memory segment. */
shmdt (shared_memory);
/* Deallocate the shared memory segment. */
shmctl (segment_id, IPC_RMID, 0);
return 0;
}
Here's a mmap example:
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
/*
* pvtmMmapAlloc - creates a memory mapped file area.
* The return value is a page-aligned memory value, or NULL if there is a failure.
* Here's the list of arguments:
* #mmapFileName - the name of the memory mapped file
* #size - the size of the memory mapped file (should be a multiple of the system page for best performance)
* #create - determines whether or not the area should be created.
*/
void* pvtmMmapAlloc (char * mmapFileName, size_t size, char create)
{
void * retv = NULL;
if (create)
{
mode_t origMask = umask(0);
int mmapFd = open(mmapFileName, O_CREAT|O_RDWR, 00666);
umask(origMask);
if (mmapFd < 0)
{
perror("open mmapFd failed");
return NULL;
}
if ((ftruncate(mmapFd, size) == 0))
{
int result = lseek(mmapFd, size - 1, SEEK_SET);
if (result == -1)
{
perror("lseek mmapFd failed");
close(mmapFd);
return NULL;
}
/* Something needs to be written at the end of the file to
* have the file actually have the new size.
* Just writing an empty string at the current file position will do.
* Note:
* - The current position in the file is at the end of the stretched
* file due to the call to lseek().
* - The current position in the file is at the end of the stretched
* file due to the call to lseek().
* - An empty string is actually a single '\0' character, so a zero-byte
* will be written at the last byte of the file.
*/
result = write(mmapFd, "", 1);
if (result != 1)
{
perror("write mmapFd failed");
close(mmapFd);
return NULL;
}
retv = mmap(NULL, size,
PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, mmapFd, 0);
if (retv == MAP_FAILED || retv == NULL)
{
perror("mmap");
close(mmapFd);
return NULL;
}
}
}
else
{
int mmapFd = open(mmapFileName, O_RDWR, 00666);
if (mmapFd < 0)
{
return NULL;
}
int result = lseek(mmapFd, 0, SEEK_END);
if (result == -1)
{
perror("lseek mmapFd failed");
close(mmapFd);
return NULL;
}
if (result == 0)
{
perror("The file has 0 bytes");
close(mmapFd);
return NULL;
}
retv = mmap(NULL, size,
PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, mmapFd, 0);
if (retv == MAP_FAILED || retv == NULL)
{
perror("mmap");
close(mmapFd);
return NULL;
}
close(mmapFd);
}
return retv;
}

Resources