Signal (IPC)
You know how sometimes you want to tell your friends something, but you can't just walk over and talk to them because they're too far away? So you might make a loud noise, like clapping your hands, to get their attention. Well, computers can do something similar called sending signals.
Signals are small messages that one process (a fancy word for a program) sends to another process. They usually contain a number that tells the receiving process what kind of signal it is, like "Hey, I just finished running this command," or "Uh oh, something's gone wrong, please stop what you're doing."
When one process sends a signal to another, it interrupts whatever that second process was doing and makes it deal with the signal instead. It's like if you were playing with your toys and your mom suddenly called your name - you'd have to stop what you were doing and go see what she wanted.
Signals are one way that different programs can communicate with each other without having to share all their information. It's kind of like playing a game of Telephone, but with computers.
Signals are small messages that one process (a fancy word for a program) sends to another process. They usually contain a number that tells the receiving process what kind of signal it is, like "Hey, I just finished running this command," or "Uh oh, something's gone wrong, please stop what you're doing."
When one process sends a signal to another, it interrupts whatever that second process was doing and makes it deal with the signal instead. It's like if you were playing with your toys and your mom suddenly called your name - you'd have to stop what you were doing and go see what she wanted.
Signals are one way that different programs can communicate with each other without having to share all their information. It's kind of like playing a game of Telephone, but with computers.