Out of curiosity, I performed a simple performance benchmark of the different inter process communication methods between a Python and a C++ program.

The test is performed by recording the round-trip time of sending + receiving fixed-sized data chunks for a fixed number of times:

Python(send) --> C++ (receive) --> C++ (send) --> Python(receive, chk)

Benchmark Results

Named Pipe / FIFO

Memory-mapped File

Shared Memory

Socket

References

• Shared memory
  • https://docs.python.org/3/library/multiprocessing.shared_memory.html
• Memory-mapped file
  • https://realpython.com/python-mmap/
• Socket
  • https://docs.python.org/3/library/multiprocessing.html#multiprocessing-listeners-clients
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6920858/interprocess-communication-in-python