Shared Memory : Simple C program to demonstrate setting up Share memory

shared memory is memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies. Shared memory is an efficient means of passing data between programs.let see how it
actually work using simple c programs.lets create two process which will use shared memory

//process1.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>


int main(int argc,char *argv[]){


int shmid;
key_t key;
char *shm;
char *memloc;
key = 9876;

shmid = shmget(key,100,IPC_CREAT | 0666);
if(shmid <0){
    printf("unable to get shared memory area identifier");
    exit(1);
}


shm = shmat(shmid,NULL,0) ;
if (shm == (char *)-1)
{
    printf("map/unmap shared memory");
    exit(1);
}


memcpy(shm,"this is shared content",22);
memloc = shm;
memloc +=22;

*memloc = 0;

while(*shm != '!')
    sleep (1);

return 0;
}

let create an another program which will read from the shared memory created by the process1.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>


int main(int argc,char *argv[]){


int shmid;
key_t key;
char *shm;
char *mloc;
key = 9876;

shmid = shmget(key,100,IPC_CREAT | 0666);
if(shmid <0){
    printf("unable to get shared memory area identifier");
    exit(1);
}


shm = shmat(shmid,NULL,0) ;
if (shm == (char *)-1)
{
    printf("map/unmap shared memory");
    exit(1);
}

for(mloc = shm; *mloc !=0;mloc++)
    printf ("%c\n",*mloc);

*shm = '!';
return 0;
}

Compilation:

gcc -o process1 process1.c 
gcc -o process2 process2.c 

Run:

./process1 -- will create and write to the shared memory and will be running
from another shell
./process2 -- will write the content from shared memory to the console and set content to the shared memory which terminate the process1.

-- 
ipcs -m
IPC status from  as of Sat Feb  6 13:24:00 IST 2016
T     ID     KEY        MODE       OWNER    GROUP
Shared Memory:
m  65536 0x00002694 --rw-rw-rw-   rsingh    staff


ipcrm -M 9876 // 9876 is hex equivalent of the shared memory key.