In The jargon of operating systems it is not programs but processes that are
communicating. When communicating processes are running on the same end system, they
communicate with each other using interprocess communication. The rules for interprocess
communication are governed by the end system’s operating system. Processes on two
different end systems communicate with each other by exchanging messages across the
computer network. A sending process creates and sends messages into the network; a
receiving process receives these messages and possibly responds by sending messages back.
Client and Server Process is a network application consisting of pairs of processes
that
send messages to each other over a network. Once of the two processes is labeled as
the
client and other process as the server. With the Web, a browser is a client process and a
Web
server is a server process. With P2P file sharing, the peer that is downloading the file is
labeled as the client, and the peer that is uploading the file is labeled as the server. In the
context of a communication session between a pair of processes, the process that indicates
the communication (that is, initially contacts the other process at the beginning of the
session) is labeled as the client. The process that waits to be contacted to begin the session
is the server. |
