/dev/proxy: A bidirectional pipe

WHAT:

• simple bidirectional pipe IPC
• like /sys or /proc but for your program instead of the kernel
• kernel module implementing a character device

WHY:

• Simple: Use mknod to create a program interface as a device node
• Simple: API is just open()/read()/write()/close()
• Simple: Works with select() for event driven programming
• Simple: Write of zero bytes closes the other end
• Simple: Works with ALL programming languages, even Bash
• Simple: No dependencies and no libraries to install
• Simple: Builds on all Linux systems
• Secure: Access rights tied to filesystem permissions on device node

INSTALLATION:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
git clone https://github.com/bob-linuxtoys/proxy.git
cd proxy
make
sudo make install

TEST:

sudo modprobe proxy

# Get proxy driver's major number to create device node
PROXYMAJOR=`grep proxy /proc/devices | awk '{print $1}'`
sudo mknod /dev/proxytest c $PROXYMAJOR 0
sudo chmod 666 /dev/proxytest

# Sender blocks waiting for the other end to open
date > /dev/proxytest &
# Open the other end to unblock sender
cat /dev/proxytest

# See pxtest1.c and pxtest2.c for a more complete test of proxy

NOTES:

See Linux Journal of August, 2010 for an article on proxy and fanout

See also http://github.org/bob-linuxtoys/fanout

COPYRIGHT:

Copyright 2010-2015, Bob Smith

LICENSE:

At your discretion, you may consider this software covered by either the GNU Public License, Version 2, or the BSD 3-Clause license.

http://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-2.0
http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause