DISTLIB: A Library for Message-Based Distributed Programs
Abstract
Distlib is a set of library routines that provides a framework for message based distributed programs. It uses the stream socket facilities of Berkeley Unix 4.2 as its basis, but provides a set of additional features to make distributed programming simpler. This library assumes that the distributed program is actually made up of a collection of process types instantiated on some subset of the nodes of a network. It explicitly rejects the notion of anonymous process. Processes communicate with each other in terms of (Node,Process-type) addresses. All communications between processes is assumed to be in the form of messages. Messages may be variable length up to some fixed bound. User processes are event driven and run-to-completion, which means that when a message arrives, it is read initially by the distributed library event handle and then passed to a user-defined procedure to be processed. When the user procedure returns, the event handler waits to receive another message from any source. This cycle of receive-process is repeated indefinitely.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA631495
Entities
People
- Dennis M. Heimbigner
Organizations
- University of Colorado Boulder