STREAMS
Unix System V framework
In computer networking, STREAMS is the native framework in Unix System V for implementing character device drivers, network protocols, and inter-process communication. In this framework, a stream is a chain of coroutines that pass messages between a program and a device driver (or between a pair of programs). STREAMS originated in Version 8 Research Unix, as Streams (not capitalized).
STREAMS's design is a modular architecture for implementing full-duplex I/O between kernel and device drivers. Its most frequent uses have been in developing terminal I/O (line discipline) and networking subsystems. In System V Release 4, the entire terminal interface was reimplemented using STREAMS. An important concept in STREAMS is the ability to push drivers – custom code modules which can modify the functionality of a network interface or other device – together to form a stack. Several of these drivers can be chained together in order.
History
STREAMS was based on the Streams I/O subsystem introduced in the Eighth Edition Research Unix (V8) by Dennis Ritchie, where it was used for the terminal I/O subsystem and the Internet protocol suite. This version, not yet called STREAMS in capitals, fit the new functionality under the existing device I/O system calls (open, close, read, write, and ioctl), and its application was limited to terminal I/O and protocols providing pipe-like I/O semantics.
This I/O system was ported to System V Release 3 by Robert Israel, Gil McGrath, Dave Olander, Her-Daw Che, and Maury Bach as part of a wider framework intended to support a variety of transport protocols, including TCP, ISO Class 4 transport, SNA LU 6.2, and the AT&T NPACK protocol (used in RFS).
“STREAMS” enters the record as unix System V framework. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what STREAMS, Unix and System can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “STREAMS” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.