LXXXIX. Semaphore, Shared Memory and IPC Functions

you have to compile in the options to have the system V stuff:
--enable-sysvsem --enable-sysvshm

The integer keys for sem_get() and shm_attach() have to be systemwide
unique. There is no method to ensure that no other process on the system
will use your specific key (security! and possible malfunction). Also
shared memory is very seldom used there are possibilities for conflicts!
To see the used id's you can use the program 'ipcs' (at least under
SuseLinux;) ). Thanks Christian C.

As for security,   please look at the perm argument to shm_get.   Shared
Memory blocks has the same permission semantics as unix user/group/other
file permissions.   As long as your webserver is running as a user that no
other users can script to..  and as long as the permissions are set to
600,  you should be fine and have no security concerns.

If only Sys V message queues were supported, I would be happy.

Samlpe code for using most of the functions here:

    $MEMSIZE    =   512;//  size of shared memory to allocate
    $SEMKEY     =   1;  //  Semaphore key
    $SHMKEY     =   2;  //  Shared memory key

    echo "Start.\n";
    // Get semaphore
    $sem_id = sem_get($SEMKEY, 1);
    if ($sem_id === false)
    {
        echo "Fail to get semaphore";
        exit;
    }
    else
        echo "Got semaphore $sem_id.\n";

    // Accuire semaphore
    if (! sem_acquire($sem_id))
    {
        echo "Fail to aquire semaphore $sem_id.\n";
        sem_remove($sem_id);
        exit;
    }
    else
        echo "Success aquire semaphore $sem_id.\n";

    $shm_id =   shm_attach($SHMKEY, $MEMSIZE);
    if ($shm_id === false)
    {
        echo "Fail to attach shared memory.\n";
        sem_remove($sem_id);
        exit;
    }
    else
        echo "Success to attach shared memory : $shm_id.\n";

    // Write variable 1
    if (!shm_put_var($shm_id, 1, "Variable 1"))
    {
        echo "Fail to put var 1 on shared memory $shm_id.\n";
        sem_remove($sem_id);
        shm_remove ($shm_id);
        exit;
    }
    else
        echo "Write var1 to shared memory.\n";

    // Write variable 2
    if (!shm_put_var($shm_id, 2, "Variable 2"))
    {
        echo "Fail to put var 2 on shared memory $shm_id.\n";
        sem_remove($sem_id);
        shm_remove ($shm_id);
        exit;
    }
    else
        echo "Write var2 to shared memory.\n";

    // Read variable 1
    $var1   =   shm_get_var ($shm_id, 1);
    if ($var1 === false)
    {
        echo "Fail to retrive Var 1 from Shared memory $shm_id,
return value=$var1.\n";
    }
    else
        echo "Read var1=$var1.\n";

    // Read variable 1
    $var2   =   shm_get_var ($shm_id, 2);
    if ($var1 === false)
    {
        echo "Fail to retrive Var 2 from Shared memory $shm_id,
return value=$var2.\n";
    }
    else
        echo "Read var2=$var2.\n";

    // Release semaphore
    if (!sem_release($sem_id))
        echo "Fail to release $sem_id semaphore.\n";
    else
        echo "Semaphore $sem_id released.\n";

    // remove shared memory segmant from SysV
    if (shm_remove ($shm_id))
        echo "Shared memory successfully removed from SysV.\n";
    else
        echo "Fail to remove $shm_id shared memory from
SysV.\n";

    // Remove semaphore
    if (sem_remove($sem_id))
        echo "semaphore removed successfully from SysV.\n";
    else
        echo "Fail to remove $sem_id semaphore from SysV.\n";
    echo "End.\n";