Inter-process communication

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Share data through Handoff, support universal links to your app's content, and display activity-based services to the user using inter-process communication.

Posts under Inter-process communication tag

6 Posts

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Activity

[macOS 26.4.x, iOS 26.4.x] Handoff broken?
Hello, with macOS' and iOS' recent updates (26.4.x), Handoff in my app appears to have become dysfunctional, as I receive the following message in the logs: getContinuationStreamsWithCompletionHandler(), inputStream=(null) outputStream=(null) error=Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=94 "Bad message" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Could not set up internal streams} It ONLY works: From a Mac with 15.x to other Macs or iOS devices (on 26.4.x). All other combinations (see below) do NOT work: iOS (26.4.x) > iOS (26.4.x) iOS (26.4.x) > Mac (26.4.x) iOS (26.4.x) > Mac (15.x) Mac (26.4.x) > iOS (26.4.x) The Handoff prompt is shown in the Dock on Mac, in the app switcher on iOS, and in the Dock on iPadOS, but once I click/press it, I get the continuationStreams error. Now, is it my app, or the OS? Thank you kindly, – Matthias
7
0
492
2w
Safari web extensions: Optimal IPC architecture between extension and the containing app
I'm building a macOS safari extension and porting its functionality from a chrome extension. The chrome extension uses native messaging hosts to communicate with another process using IPC and holding a persistent connection. To use the same functionality in Safari, I understand that will need to use the handler to communicate it to the containing app, and the app will have to hold the persistent IPC connection. My question derives from that concept: should the app be running in a long-lived state? And if so, how can I ensure that app be running 100% of the time. Also is there any way I can control it's lifecycle with the Safari browser's lifecycle? I will not be using XPC here, but a different UDS to make the connection. Also in addition to that, what would you recommend the best approach is the communicate between the extension and it's handler? -> should it be again a UDS or userDefaults +darwin notification be enough? Also I wouldn't want the inter-message relayed between components to be dropped, is there a fault tolerant architecture you would recommend?
0
0
327
Apr ’26
Unix Domain Socket path for IPC between LaunchDaemon and LaunchAgent
Hello, I am working on a cross-platform application where IPC between a LaunchDaemon and a LaunchAgent is implemented via Unix domain sockets. On macOS, the socket path length is restricted to 104 characters. What is the Apple-recommended directory for these sockets to ensure the path remains under the limit while allowing a non-sandboxed agent to communicate with a root daemon? Standard paths like $TMPDIR are often too long for this purpose. Thank you in advance!
4
0
442
Mar ’26
Mac: Best way to distinguish native app process and script process spawned from executable (e.g. python node) through process_id
I'm working on a Mac app that receives a process ID via NSXPCConnection, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to determine whether that process is a native macOS app like Safari—with bundles and all—or just a script launched by something like Node or Python. The executable is signed with a Team ID using codesign. I was thinking about getting the executable's path as one way to handle it, but I’m wondering if there’s a more reliable method than relying on the folder structure.
1
0
301
Sep ’25
File/Folder access/scoping for background only apps
We create plug-ins for Adobe Creative Cloud and have run into an issue with respect to file/folder permissions. First, all of our libraries, code is code-signed and notarized as per Apple requirements but distribute outside of the Mac App store. We install a Photoshop plug-in and its mainly a UI which then executes a background app containing the business logic to read/write files. The background app runs as a separate process and is not in the Photoshop sandbox space so it doesn't inherit Photoshop permissions/scoping rules. Our plug-in communicates with the background process via ports etc. When a user chooses a file to process from lets say the Desktop, generally macOS first pops up a message that says ABCD background app is trying to access files from the Desktop do you grant it permission etc...This is also true for network mounted volumes or downloads folder. This message generally appears properly when everything is under an account with admin rights. However, when our tool is installed from a Standard Account, the macOS messages asking for confirmation to access the Desktop or Documents or Downloads folder doesn't appear and access to the file/folders is denied. Thus our background only process errors out. Looking at the Security and Privacy->Files and Folders the button to enable access is in the Off position. If we turn these on Manually, everything works. But this is a really poor user experience and sometimes our users think our software is not working. Does anybody have any idea how to allow for the file/folder permissions to be registered/granted in such a case? Should we try to register these as Full Disk Access? Any ideas and/or solutions are welcome.
8
0
275
Jul ’25
[macOS 26.4.x, iOS 26.4.x] Handoff broken?
Hello, with macOS' and iOS' recent updates (26.4.x), Handoff in my app appears to have become dysfunctional, as I receive the following message in the logs: getContinuationStreamsWithCompletionHandler(), inputStream=(null) outputStream=(null) error=Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=94 "Bad message" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Could not set up internal streams} It ONLY works: From a Mac with 15.x to other Macs or iOS devices (on 26.4.x). All other combinations (see below) do NOT work: iOS (26.4.x) > iOS (26.4.x) iOS (26.4.x) > Mac (26.4.x) iOS (26.4.x) > Mac (15.x) Mac (26.4.x) > iOS (26.4.x) The Handoff prompt is shown in the Dock on Mac, in the app switcher on iOS, and in the Dock on iPadOS, but once I click/press it, I get the continuationStreams error. Now, is it my app, or the OS? Thank you kindly, – Matthias
Replies
7
Boosts
0
Views
492
Activity
2w
Safari web extensions: Optimal IPC architecture between extension and the containing app
I'm building a macOS safari extension and porting its functionality from a chrome extension. The chrome extension uses native messaging hosts to communicate with another process using IPC and holding a persistent connection. To use the same functionality in Safari, I understand that will need to use the handler to communicate it to the containing app, and the app will have to hold the persistent IPC connection. My question derives from that concept: should the app be running in a long-lived state? And if so, how can I ensure that app be running 100% of the time. Also is there any way I can control it's lifecycle with the Safari browser's lifecycle? I will not be using XPC here, but a different UDS to make the connection. Also in addition to that, what would you recommend the best approach is the communicate between the extension and it's handler? -> should it be again a UDS or userDefaults +darwin notification be enough? Also I wouldn't want the inter-message relayed between components to be dropped, is there a fault tolerant architecture you would recommend?
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
327
Activity
Apr ’26
Unix Domain Socket path for IPC between LaunchDaemon and LaunchAgent
Hello, I am working on a cross-platform application where IPC between a LaunchDaemon and a LaunchAgent is implemented via Unix domain sockets. On macOS, the socket path length is restricted to 104 characters. What is the Apple-recommended directory for these sockets to ensure the path remains under the limit while allowing a non-sandboxed agent to communicate with a root daemon? Standard paths like $TMPDIR are often too long for this purpose. Thank you in advance!
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
442
Activity
Mar ’26
Bug in iOS 26 beta 1
Just got the bug while listening music and started my stopwatch. Now what’s interesting is when i continuously opened the music app music is in play mode. when opening ChatGPT it stops the music. I don’t understand why but its quite annoying.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
151
Activity
Oct ’25
Mac: Best way to distinguish native app process and script process spawned from executable (e.g. python node) through process_id
I'm working on a Mac app that receives a process ID via NSXPCConnection, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to determine whether that process is a native macOS app like Safari—with bundles and all—or just a script launched by something like Node or Python. The executable is signed with a Team ID using codesign. I was thinking about getting the executable's path as one way to handle it, but I’m wondering if there’s a more reliable method than relying on the folder structure.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
301
Activity
Sep ’25
File/Folder access/scoping for background only apps
We create plug-ins for Adobe Creative Cloud and have run into an issue with respect to file/folder permissions. First, all of our libraries, code is code-signed and notarized as per Apple requirements but distribute outside of the Mac App store. We install a Photoshop plug-in and its mainly a UI which then executes a background app containing the business logic to read/write files. The background app runs as a separate process and is not in the Photoshop sandbox space so it doesn't inherit Photoshop permissions/scoping rules. Our plug-in communicates with the background process via ports etc. When a user chooses a file to process from lets say the Desktop, generally macOS first pops up a message that says ABCD background app is trying to access files from the Desktop do you grant it permission etc...This is also true for network mounted volumes or downloads folder. This message generally appears properly when everything is under an account with admin rights. However, when our tool is installed from a Standard Account, the macOS messages asking for confirmation to access the Desktop or Documents or Downloads folder doesn't appear and access to the file/folders is denied. Thus our background only process errors out. Looking at the Security and Privacy->Files and Folders the button to enable access is in the Off position. If we turn these on Manually, everything works. But this is a really poor user experience and sometimes our users think our software is not working. Does anybody have any idea how to allow for the file/folder permissions to be registered/granted in such a case? Should we try to register these as Full Disk Access? Any ideas and/or solutions are welcome.
Replies
8
Boosts
0
Views
275
Activity
Jul ’25