LVI. Semaphore and Shared Memory Functions
This module provides semaphore functions using System V
semaphores. Semaphores may be used to provide exclusive access to
resources on the current machine, or to limit the number of
processes that may simultaneously use a resource.
This module provides also shared memory functions using System V
shared memory. Shared memory may be used to provide access to
global variables. Different httpd-daemons and even other programs
(such as Perl, C, ...) are able to access this data to provide a
global data-exchange. Remember, that shared memory is NOT safe
against simultaneous access. Use semaphores for synchronization.
Table 1. Limits of Shared Memory by the Unix OS
| SHMMAX | max size of shared memory, normally 131072 bytes |
| SHMMIN | minimum size of shared memory, normally 1 byte |
| SHMMNI | max amount of shared memory segments, normally 100 |
| SHMSEG | max amount of shared memory per process, normally 6 |
