I was wondering if there is anything like MSMQ (Microsoft Message Queuing) for a Linux operating system?

If not, what is the typical practice for writing smart client applications (ones that can go disconnected for any given amount of time, all the while allowing a person to continue working (performing saves, etc) and then upon regaining its connection sending the queue of saves to the server to be saved.

MSMQ will allow me to do this on a windows machine by automatically handling the connection, queuing, sending, receiving of messages. Before MSMQ I used the Microsoft offline application block, which queued up items in a temporary cache file in windows isolated storage.

I was just wondering if there is a way developers do this on Linux without implementing their own little sub-system to do this type of thing or is that currently the only way to do something like this on a Linux machine?

I ask because I would like to develop an application like this on Linux but was not sure what the standard practice for this was.


thanks guys

The short answer: there are a million ways to do it:

a) *nix e-mail is the canonical example of exactly what you're trying to do
b) MSMQ is a good technology but, like all things Microsoft, you have to deal with a million variant-APIs-du-jour, including the original DCOM/MSMQ, the later COM+/MSMQ, and the current WCF (nee "Indigo")/MSMQ integration.

Longer answer: here are a few alternatives worth considering:

a) ad hoc (*not* necessarily a bad idea - just append to a flat text file, for example)

b) leverage your existing e-mail infrastructure with a customized MDA:
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/I...ts/index.shtml

c) Roll your own, using MSMQ's current protocol:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms706979.aspx

d) buy a third party product

'Hope that helps .. PSM