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2.1.4. Linux Processes

In the previous segment
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In the last lecture, we have discussed briefly about

Components of an Operating System.

In this segment
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We will discuss about

Linux Processes.
Processes in Linux
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A Process is a program in execution.

A Linux Process has by default one Thread and a memory address space.

All Process begin with one thread of execution that runs main() function.

You can create additional POSIX threads using pthread_create().

Each process is associated with a Process Id (pid)

After booting the first process created is the ‘init’ process, with pid = 1.
Linux Process Creation
BITS Pilani

 A Linux process is created using ‘fork()’.

 ‘fork’ creates a child process exactly identical to the parent, including stack,
heap, file descriptors, variables etc, but the child runs in another address space.

 So after ‘fork’ both parent and child processes run.

 ‘fork’ returns two PIDs:

o ‘0’ to the child process
o ‘positive number’ to the parent process.
o ‘-1’ for failure
Linux Process Creation - Example
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#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>  Save this file as ‘process.c’
#include <unistd.h>  Compile it using command:
#include <sys/types.h> $ cc process.c -o process
 Then run it by
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) $ ./process
{
int pid, child_status;
pid = fork();
if(pid == 0) {
printf("I am the child process \n");
}
else if(pid == -1) {
printf("Error in process creation! \n\n");
return 1;
}
else {
printf("I am the parent process, child pid = %d \n", pid);
/* Wait until the child terminates */
wait(&child_status);
}
return 0;
}
 Linux Process Creation
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fork()

Parent Process Child Process

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{ {
Control will
… …
come here
pid = fork(); pid = fork();
if(pid == 0) { if(pid == 0) {
Control will … …
come here } }
else if(pid == -1) { else if(pid == -1) {
… …
} }
else { else {
… …
} }
return 0; return 0;
} }
Linux Process Creation –
Running a different program in the child process
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After fork(), the child process will be running the parent’s code.
We need to run a different program in the child process (otherwise why did we
created it in first place ?)
It will be done by ‘exec’ family of system calls.
There are many in this family, we will use

int execl(const char *path, const char *arg, …)

1st argument = path of the program
2nd argument = 1st argument of the program,
i.e. the executable file name itself
next arguments = You can pass the argument required by the program,
pass NULL if the program doesn’t require any arguments
Linux Process Creation –
Running a different program in the child process
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 We will execute ‘/bin/ls’ in the child process.
 In the parent process we will wait for the child process to terminate.
 It can be achieved by
o wait(NULL) : suspends the current process until one of its child terminates
o waitpid(pid, &child_status, 0) :suspends the process until the
child process specified by the pid changes its state. Here change of state
means termination.

 Since the parent has only one child in our case, both calls result in same
behaviour.
Linux Process Creation –
Running a different program in the child process
BITS Pilani
#include <stdio.h> else if(pid == -1) {
#include <stdlib.h> /* Process creation failed */
#include <unistd.h> printf("Error in process creation! \n\n");
return 1;
#include <sys/types.h>
}
#include <sys/wait.h> else {
/* It is the parent process */
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) printf("I am the parrent process, child pid = %d
{ \n", pid);
char cmd_str[128]; /* Wait until the child terminates */
int pid; wait(&child_status);
int child_status; printf("-------------------------\n");
printf("Done, status = %d\n", child_status);
}
printf("sh> ");
return 0;
scanf("%s", cmd_str); }
pid = fork();
if(pid == 0) { Compile it using command:
/*child process*/ $ cc process.c -o process
printf("I am the child process \n"); Then run it by
printf("cmd = '%s'\n", cmd_str); $ ./process
printf("-------------------------\n");
execl(cmd_str, cmd_str, (char*)NULL);
/* We should not return from 'execl'.
We will go to next line, if error occurs */
perror("execl() failure!\n\n");
printf("This print should not come if execl were successful! \n\n");
exit(1);
}
Summary
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In this lecture, we have discussed about

Linux Processes.

In the next lecture, we will discuss about

POSIX Threads in Linux.