Using Gamma's IPC communications protocol, a task can be located by name or by id. This protocol allows for synchronous, asynchronous, and semi-asynchronous communications between Gamma, SCADALisp, and other Cogent products such as the Cogent DataHub program.

Locating a task by name can be done with the locate_task function. This is similar to using the qnx_name_locate function except that, since nserve's names are intended to be unique on a network the node number need not be specified.

marko:/home/marko$ gamma -q
Gamma> init_ipc("locate_test");
t
Gamma> tp = locate_task("cadsim",nil);
#< Task:13424 >
		  

The return value of the locate_task function is a Gamma task type. The task type is an internal representation of the task that was located. There is nothing the user can do with variables of this data type other than to pass them through as arguments to Cogent IPC functions.

To locate a task on a specific node with a specific PID number use the locate_task_id function.

Before using either locate_task or locate_task_id, the init_ipc function must have already been called.

Once discussions with a task are completed, the channel should be closed using the close_task function.