System V Semaphores

System V semaphores provide counting semaphores in the Solaris OS. A semaphore is a counter used to provide access to a shared data object for multiple processes. In addition to the standard set and release operations for semaphores, System V semaphores can have values that are incremented and decremented as needed (for example, to represent the number of resources available). System V semaphores also provide the ability to do operations on a group of semaphores simultaneously as well as to have the system undo the last operation by a process if the process dies.

For information about the changes to semaphore resources in the Solaris 10 release, see System V IPC Configuration.

For detailed information about using the new resource controls in the Solaris 10 release, see Chapter 6, Resource Controls (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System.

For legacy information about the obsolete System V semaphore parameters, see Parameters That Are Obsolete or Have Been Removed.