I created example how to comunnicate with programe written in C throught messages queues. First run C program (it will create queue) then PHP script.

C code compile with: gcc -std=c99 -o test_queue test_queue.c

test_queue.c:
/**
* Example how to use System V Messages Queues with PHP and C program.
* This is simple server which create message queue and receive message from it.
* Based on Beej's Guide to Unix IPC
* Autor: Jan Drazil, <qeekin at gmail dot com>
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/msg.h>

/* Buffer struct for receiving messages */
struct php_buf {
    long mtype;
    char msg[200];
};

int main(void)
{
    struct php_buf buf;
    int msqid;
    key_t key;

    /* Generate key (/var/www/index.php must be accessible file) */
    if((key = ftok("/var/www/index.php", 'G')) == -1) {
        perror("ftok");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    /* Create message queue */
    if((msqid = msgget(key, 0666 | IPC_CREAT)) == -1) {
        perror("msgget");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    printf("Ready to get string from PHP!\n");

    /* Receive message */
    if(msgrcv(msqid, &buf, sizeof(buf.msg)-1, 0, 0) == -1) {
        perror("msgrcv");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    /* Eliminate segmentation fault */
    buf.msg[199] = '\0';

    printf("Recieved from PHP: %s\n", buf.msg);

    /* Destroy message queue */
    if(msgctl(msqid, IPC_RMID, NULL) == -1) {
        perror("msgctl");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

test_queue.php:
<?php
/**
* Example how to use System V Messages Queues with PHP and C program.
* This is simple server which create message queue and receive message from it.
* Based on Beej's Guide to Unix IPC
* Autor: Jan Drazil, <qeekin at gmail dot com>
*/

/* Generate key, param fot ftok must be same as in test_msg.c */
if(($key = ftok("/var/www/index.php", "G")) == -1)
    die("ftok");

if(!msg_queue_exists($key))
    die("message queue doesn't exists");

/* Connect to message queue */
if(($msqid = msg_get_queue($key)) === FALSE)
    die("msg_get_queue");

echo "Sending text to msg queue.\n";

/* Send message to C program */
if(!msg_send($msqid, 12, "Hello from PHP!\0", false))
    die("msg_send");

echo "Done"
?>

When sending non-complex (serialize = false) messages to a program in C, you need to add the null character to the string (\0). Otherwise the previous message will be partially visible if it is longer than the current message. Took some kind help from comp.lang.php for me to figure that out. While it seems so obvious now, I thought I'd share it here.

After about an hour of debugging I've discovered the meaning of the undocumented "PHP Warning: msg_send(): msgsnd failed: Invalid argument" ($errorcode = 13).

This occurred when the size of $message was larger than msg_qbytes (see msg_stat_queue() for how to determine and change msg_qbytes).