What are the different Inter-Process Communication (IPC) mechanisms?

IPC enables data exchange between processes. Mechanisms: Pipes (unidirectional byte stream, related processes), Named Pipes/FIFOs (unrelated processes), Message Queues (structured messages with priorities), Shared Memory (fastest, direct memory access, needs synchronization), Sockets (network or local communication), Signals (asynchronous notifications), Memory-mapped files (file as shared memory). Choice depends on data size, relationship between processes, and performance needs.