In computer programming

Computer programming

Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...

, Database-as-IPC is an anti-pattern

Anti-pattern

In software engineering, an anti-pattern is a pattern that may be commonly used but is ineffective and/or counterproductive in practice.The term was coined in 1995 by Andrew Koenig,...

 where a database is used as the message queue for routine interprocess communication

Inter-process communication

In computing, Inter-process communication is a set of methods for the exchange of data among multiple threads in one or more processes. Processes may be running on one or more computers connected by a network. IPC methods are divided into methods for message passing, synchronization, shared...

 in a situation where a lightweight IPC mechanism such as sockets

Unix domain socket

A Unix domain socket or IPC socket is a data communications endpoint for exchanging data between processes executing within the same host operating system. While similar in functionality to...

would be more suitable. Using a database for this kind of message passing is extremely inefficient compared to other IPC methods and often introduces serious long-term maintenance issues, but this method enjoys a measure of popularity because the database operations are more widely understood than 'proper' IPC mechanisms