In computer science, message queues and mailboxes are software-engineering components typically used for inter-process communication, or for inter-thread communication within the same process. They use a queue for messaging – the passing of control or of content.

What is message queue used for?

A message queue provides a lightweight buffer which temporarily stores messages, and endpoints that allow software components to connect to the queue in order to send and receive messages. The messages are usually small, and can be things like requests, replies, error messages, or just plain information.

What is message queue in distributed system?

Message queuing is a technique for information exchange among distributed applications. It enables one application to send information as messages to other applications using message queues. Message queues can reside in computer memory or on disk.