comm-ipc 0.1.2

A lightweight IPC library with bridge and streaming support

CommIPC: Asynchronous Secure Distributed Inter-Process Communication

CommIPC is an asynchronous Inter-Process Communication (IPC) system designed for Linux environments. Written in pure Python, it provides communication through Unix Domain Sockets for local processes and TCP for cross-network communication, featuring integrated bridging, synchronization, and security mechanisms.

Table of Contents

• Key Features
• Architecture Overview
• Components
• Usage Guide
  • Basic RPC (Request-Response)
  • Streaming Responses
  • Cross-Network Bridging
• Performance and Scalability
• Testing
• License

Key Features

• Zero-Trust Security:
  • HMAC-SHA256 Handshake: Mandatory cryptographic challenge for every client connection.
  • End-to-End Signature: All channel messages are signed with HMAC-SHA256 based on channel passwords, ensuring data integrity even if the server is compromised.
• Advanced Channel Management:
  • Owner-Based Administration: The first client to join a channel is the Admin/Owner, with exclusive rights to manage security.
  • Explicit Password Protection: Support for protecting channels (including system channels) with unique, cryptographically derived keys.
  • Flexible Lifecycle Policies: Configurable policies for handling owner disconnection (terminate or promote).
• High Resilience:
  • Auto-Reconnect: Robust reconnection logic with exponential backoff and transparent state restoration (channels, providers).
  • Synchronous Persistence: Client APIs wait for server confirmation for registrations and security changes, preventing communication hangs.
• Dependency-Free: Implemented entirely using the Python standard library, requiring no external packages.

Architecture Overview

The system operates as a hub-and-spoke model locally, which can be extended into a mesh or linear topology using bridges.

graph TD
    subgraph "Local Network A"
        SrvA["CommIPCServer (Primary)"]
        CliA1["Client A1"] <--> SrvA
        CliA2["Client A2"] <--> SrvA
    end
    
    subgraph "Bridge Link"
        Bridge["CommIPCBridge"]
    end
    
    subgraph "Remote Network B"
        SrvB["CommIPCServer (Secondary)"]
        CliB1["Client B1"] <--> SrvB
    end
    
    SrvA <--> Bridge <--> SrvB

Components

• CommIPCServer: The central message coordinator responsible for client lifecycle management, authentication, and message routing.
• CommIPC: The primary client interface for application integration.
• CommIPCChannel: A high-level abstraction layer for interacting with specific logical communication channels.
• CommIPCBridge: A specialized interconnect service that synchronizes providers and subscribers across discrete server instances.

Usage Guide

Basic RPC (Request-Response)

Service Provider

import asyncio
from comm_ipc.client import CommIPC

async def main():
    client = CommIPC(client_id="math_service")
    channel = await client.open("math_operations")
    
    def add(params):
        return params.data["a"] + params.data["b"]
        
    await channel.add_event("sum", call=add)
    
    # Maintain the service loop
    await asyncio.Future() 

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Service Consumer

import asyncio
from comm_ipc.client import CommIPC

async def main():
    client = CommIPC(client_id="application_client")
    channel = await client.open("math_operations")
    
    response = await channel.event("sum", {"a": 15, "b": 25})
    print(f"Calculated Sum: {response.data}") # Expected Output: 40

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Streaming Responses

Stream Provider

async def sequence_generator(request):
    n = request.data.get("limit", 10)
    for i in range(n):
        yield i
        await asyncio.sleep(0.05)

await channel.add_stream("data_feed", call=sequence_generator)

Stream Consumer

async for chunk in channel.stream("data_feed", {"limit": 5}):
    print(f"Received Chunk: {chunk.data}")

Cross-Network Bridging

from comm_ipc.bridge import CommIPCBridge

# Establishes a link between a local Unix socket and a remote TCP server
bridge = CommIPCBridge(socket_path1="/tmp/local_service.sock")
await bridge.connect(
    target1_params={}, 
    target2_params={"host": "192.168.1.100", "port": 9000}
)

Security & Channel Management

Protecting a Channel (Owner)

# The first client to open the channel becomes the owner
channel = await client.open("secure-data")
await client.set_password("secure-data", "strong-password")

Joining a Protected Channel

# Fails if password is wrong or missing
channel = await client.open("secure-data", password="strong-password")

Protecting System Channels

You can secure internal system channels (logs, errors, registration events) by providing a system_passwords dictionary when initializing the server:

server = CommIPCServer(
    system_passwords={
        "__comm_ipc_logs": "log-secret",
        "__comm_ipc_errors": "error-secret",
        "__comm_ipc_system": "sys-secret"
    }
)

Performance and Resilience

CommIPC is optimized for reliability:

• Auto-Reconnect: Automatically recovers from server restarts and network interruptions.
• State Preservation: Transparently restores all active channel memberships and event providers after a reconnection event.
• Optional Client Logging: Clients are silent by default; set verbose=True during initialization to enable terminal logging.
• Unix Domain Sockets: Minimizes latency for local-host communication by bypassing the network stack.

Testing

The project maintains a comprehensive verification suite located in the tests/ directory.

# Execute the full validation suite
PYTHONPATH=. pytest tests/

The test coverage includes:

• Zero-Trust Verification: HMAC handshakes, signature integrity, and E2E verification.
• Advanced Management: Ownership logic, lifecycle policies, and resource cleanup.
• Resilience: Auto-reconnect stability and state restoration.
• Distributed Systems: Bridge synchronization and circular path detection.
• Streaming: Asynchronous iterator support across local and remote instances.

License

This project is licensed under the LGPLv3 License.