Queue
<programming> A
first-in first-out data structure used to sequence multiple demands for a resource such as a
printer,
processor or communications channel.
Objects are added to the tail of the queue and taken off the head.
A typical use of queues in an
operating system involves a user command which places something on a queue, e.g. a file on a printer queue or a job on a job queue, and a
background process or "
demon" which takes things off and processes them (e.g. prints or executes them).
Another common use is to pass data between an
interrupt handler and a user process.
