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# 17. Interprocess Communication and Networking

The modules described in this chapter provide mechanisms for different processes to communicate.

Some modules only work for two processes that are on the same machine, e.g. `signal` and `subprocess`. Other modules support networking protocols that two or more processes can used to communicate across machines.

The list of modules described in this chapter is:

- 17.1. `subprocess` — Subprocess management
  - 17.1.1. Using the subprocess Module
    - 17.1.1.1. Convenience Functions
    - 17.1.1.2. Exceptions
    - 17.1.1.3. Security
  - 17.1.2. Popen Objects
  - 17.1.3. Replacing Older Functions with the subprocess Module
    - 17.1.3.1. Replacing /bin/sh shell backquote
    - 17.1.3.2. Replacing shell pipeline
    - 17.1.3.3. Replacing `os.system()`
    - 17.1.3.4. Replacing the `os.spawn` family
    - 17.1.3.5. Replacing `os.popen()`, `os.popen2()`, `os.popen3()`
    - 17.1.3.6. Replacing functions from the `popen2` module
- 17.2. `socket` — Low-level networking interface
  - 17.2.1. Socket Objects
  - 17.2.2. Example
- 17.3. `ssl` — SSL wrapper for socket objects
  - 17.3.1. Functions, Constants, and Exceptions
  - 17.3.2. SSLSocket Objects
  - 17.3.3. Certificates
  - 17.3.4. Examples
    - 17.3.4.1. Testing for SSL support
    - 17.3.4.2. Client-side operation
    - 17.3.4.3. Server-side operation
- 17.4. `signal` — Set handlers for asynchronous events
  - 17.4.1. Example
- 17.5. `popen2` — Subprocesses with accessible I/O streams
  - 17.5.1. Popen3 and Popen4 Objects
  - 17.5.2. Flow Control Issues
- 17.6. `asyncore` — Asynchronous socket handler
  - 17.6.1. asyncore Example basic HTTP client
  - 17.6.2. asyncore Example basic echo server
- 17.7. `asynchat` — Asynchronous socket command/response handler
  - 17.7.1. asynchat - Auxiliary Classes
  - 17.7.2. asynchat Example

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