Cross process synchronization in Java

Question

How can I synchornize two Java processes running on Windows ?

I am looking for something like the Win32 Named Mutex object which allows two processes to use the same locking object.

Thanks

Answer 1

I don't think there are native methods in the java platform for this. However, there are several ways to go about obtaining the same type of effect depending on what synchronization you are trying to accomplish. In addition to having the processes communicate over network connections (direct sockets, multicast with an election, etc.) or dropping to platform specific calls, you can also explore obtaining a file lock to a shared file (see activemq passive stand-by with a shared file system for an example) or using a database either with something like a select for update or an optimistic update of a table row.