IPC keys

[Warren Smith [Randy]]

The keys used with the system V IPC mechanisms (msgget, shmget, semget)
could collide if using software provided by different groups or
vendors.  The books+manuals I've seen don't address this problem.  How
does one go about selecting keys when the software may need to run on
systems where other products are using the IPC mechanisms?  Is there
some sort of standard key management system that I'm unaware of?  If
not, why was IPC implemented without addressing this problem?

The current IPC identifier scheme is designed for speed in the use of
the IPC operations (eg. msgsnd, msgrcv), yet is limited to a fixed
number of IPC identifiers that is determined at kernel configuration
time (msgmni, semmni, shmmni).  Will/has this problem been addressed?

-Randy
-- 
Randy Smith
wsmith at cs.umn.edu
...!rutgers!umn-cs!wsmith