IPCMK(1)

💖 IPCMK(1) — User Commands 💖

okay bestie, so this is ipcmk(1) from the User Commands corner of the manual, and it's literally the tool you want when you need to make IPC stuff instead of just staring at it. sit down, grab a lil drink, we're doing this 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

ipcmk — make various IPC resources

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ipcmk [options]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ipcmk lets you create POSIX and System V inter-process communication (IPC) objects, which is a fancy way of saying: shared memory segments, message queues, and semaphore (arrays for System V). it's giving factory. it's giving creator energy. you're not observing IPC objects here, you're birthing them ✨

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

🎀 Resources 🎀

you tell it what to make with these, bestie:

• -M, --shmem size — makes a shared memory segment of size bytes. and the size argument can be followed by multiplicative suffixes: KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, etc. (the iB part is optional — like, K means the same thing as KiB), or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, etc. 💖
• -m, --posix-shmem size — makes a POSIX shared memory segment of size bytes. same suffix situation, no cap: KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, etc. (iB optional, K = KiB), or KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, etc.
• -Q, --queue — makes a message queue. iconic.
• -q, --posix-mqueue — makes a POSIX message queue. very posix of it.
• -S, --semaphore number — makes a semaphore array with number of elements. it's an array, she contains multitudes 🌈
• -s, --posix-semaphore — makes a POSIX named semaphore. 🧚
• -n, --name name — the name of the POSIX IPC object. and listen: this one is mandatory for POSIX IPC objects. no name, no object, no service. periodt. 👑

heads up bestie: -n/--name is not optional if you're making POSIX IPC stuff. don't skip it and then act surprised, i'm begging 🙈

⭐ Other options ⭐

• -p, --mode mode — access permissions for the resource. the default is 0644. yes, the classic.
• -h, --help — display help text and exit. your lil safety net.
• -V, --version — display version and exit. slay.

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Hayden A. James <hayden.james@gmail.com>, Prasanna Paithankar <paithankarprasanna@gmail.com>

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

ipcrm(1), ipcs(1), lsipc(1), sysvipc(7)

iykyk — go read those next, they're the whole friend group fr fr 💜

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💀 REPORTING BUGS 💀

for bug reports, use the issue tracker <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>. don't be shy, that's literally what it's for 🫶

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🌈 AVAILABILITY 🌈

the ipcmk command is part of the util-linux package, which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

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and that's the whole page bestie!! this one's from util-linux 2.42.4, dated 2026-09-21 — go make some IPC objects, you absolute main character 💅✨🎀