Al-Mansour University College

Software Engineering and Information Technology Department

week 3
CHAPTER 3: PROCESS CONCEPT

Name: Sinan Sameer

Lecture-3
 CHAPTER 3: PROCESS CONCEPT
No Content
1 Process Concept
2 Process Scheduling

3 Operations on Processes

4 Interprocess Communication

5 Examples of IPC Systems

6 Communication in Client-Server
Systems
 PROCESS CONCEPT
 An operating system executes a variety of programs:
 Batch system – jobs
 Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
 Textbook uses the terms job and process almost interchangeably
 Process – a program in execution; process execution must progress in sequential fashion
 Multiple parts
 The program code, also called text section
 Current activity including program counter, processor registers
 Stack containing temporary data
 Function parameters, return addresses, local variables
 Data section containing global variables
 Heap containing memory dynamically allocated during run time
 Program is passive entity stored on disk (executable file), process is active
 Program becomes process when executable file loaded into memory
 Execution of program started via GUI mouse clicks, command line entry of its name, etc
 One program can be several processes
 Consider multiple users executing the same program
PROCESS IN MEMORY
PROCESS STATE
 As a process executes, it changes state
 new: The process is being created
 running: Instructions are being executed
 waiting: The process is waiting for some event to occur
 ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a processor
 terminated: The process has finished execution
DIAGRAM OF PROCESS STATE
 PROCESS CONTROL BLOCK (PCB)
Information associated with each process
(also called task control block)
 Process state – running, waiting, etc

 Program counter – location of instruction to next

execute
 CPU registers – contents of all process-centric
registers
 CPU scheduling information- priorities, scheduling
queue pointers
 Memory-management information – memory
allocated to the process
 Accounting information – CPU used, clock time
elapsed since start, time limits
 I/O status information – I/O devices allocated to
process, list of open files
CPU SWITCH FROM PROCESS TO PROCESS
 THREADS

 So far, process has a single thread of execution

 Consider having multiple program counters per process
 Multiple locations can execute at once
 Multiple threads of control -> threads

 Must then have storage for thread details, multiple program

counters in PCB
 See next chapter
PROCESS REPRESENTATION IN LINUX
 Represented by the C structure task_struct
pid t pid; /* process identifier */
long state; /* state of the process */
unsigned int time slice /* scheduling information
*/
struct task struct *parent; /* this process’s
parent */
struct list head children; /* this process’s
children */
struct files struct *files; /* list of open files
*/
struct mm struct *mm; /* address space of this
process */
PROCESS SCHEDULING
 Maximize CPU use, quickly switch processes onto CPU for
time sharing
 Process scheduler selects among available processes for
next execution on CPU
 Maintains scheduling queues of processes
 Job queue – set of all processes in the system
 Ready queue – set of all processes residing in main memory,
ready and waiting to execute
 Device queues – set of processes waiting for an I/O device
 Processes migrate among the various queues
READY QUEUE AND VARIOUS
I/O DEVICE QUEUES
REPRESENTATION OF PROCESS SCHEDULING
 Queuing diagram represents queues, resources, flows
SCHEDULERS
 Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects which processes should be brought
into the ready queue
 Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects which process should be
executed next and allocates CPU
 Sometimes the only scheduler in a system
 Short-term scheduler is invoked very frequently (milliseconds)  (must be fast)

 Long-term scheduler is invoked very infrequently (seconds, minutes)  (may be slow)

 The long-term scheduler controls the degree of multiprogramming

 Processes can be described as either:

 I/O-bound process – spends more time doing I/O than computations, many short CPU bursts
 CPU-bound process – spends more time doing computations; few very long CPU bursts
 Long-term scheduler strives for good process mix
 ADDITION OF MEDIUM TERM SCHEDULING
 Medium-term scheduler can be added if degree of multiple programming needs to decrease
 Remove process from memory, store on disk, bring back in from disk to continue execution:
swapping
MULTITASKING IN MOBILE SYSTEMS
 Some systems / early systems allow only one process to run, others suspended
 Due to screen real estate, user interface limits iOS provides for a
 Single foreground process- controlled via user interface
 Multiple background processes– in memory, running, but not on the display, and with
limits
 Limits include single, short task, receiving notification of events, specific long-running
tasks like audio playback
 Android runs foreground and background, with fewer limits
 Background process uses a service to perform tasks
 Service can keep running even if background process is suspended
 Service has no user interface, small memory use
CONTEXT SWITCH
 When CPU switches to another process, the system must save the state of the
old process and load the saved state for the new process via a context switch

 Context of a process represented in the PCB

 Context-switch time is overhead; the system does no useful work while

switching
 The more complex the OS and the PCB -> longer the context switch

 Time dependent on hardware support

 Some hardware provides multiple sets of registers per CPU -> multiple contexts
loaded at once
OPERATIONS ON PROCESSES
 System must provide mechanisms for process creation,
termination, and so on as detailed next
PROCESS CREATION
 Parent process create children processes, which, in turn create
other processes, forming a tree of processes
 Generally, process identified and managed via a process
identifier (pid)
 Resource sharing options
 Parent and children share all resources
 Children share subset of parent’s resources
 Parent and child share no resources

 Execution options
 Parent and children execute concurrently
 Parent waits until children terminate
 A TREE OF PROCESSES IN LINUX

i ni t
pi d = 1

l o gi n kt hr e add s s hd
pi d = 8 415 pi d = 2 pi d = 302 8

bas h khe l pe r pdf l us h s s hd

pi d = 84 16 pi d = 6 pi d = 200 pi d = 3 610

e ma c s t cs ch
ps
pi d = 920 4 pi d = 4005
pi d = 9 298
 PROCESS CREATION (CONT.)
 Address space
 Child duplicate of parent
 Child has a program loaded into it

 UNIX examples
 fork() system call creates new process
 exec() system call used after a fork() to replace the process’
memory space with a new program
C PROGRAM FORKING SEPARATE PROCESS
CREATING A SEPARATE PROCESS VIA WINDOWS
API
PROCESS TERMINATION
 Process executes last statement and asks the operating system to delete it (exit())
 Output data from child to parent (via wait())
 Process’ resources are deallocated by operating system
 Parent may terminate execution of children processes (abort())
 Child has exceeded allocated resources
 Task assigned to child is no longer required
 If parent is exiting
 Some operating systems do not allow child to continue if its parent terminates
 All children terminated - cascading termination

 Wait for termination, returning the pid:

pid t pid; int status;
pid = wait(&status);
 If no parent waiting, then terminated process is a zombie

 If parent terminated, processes are orphans

MULTIPROCESS ARCHITECTURE – CHROME
BROWSER
 Many web browsers ran as single process (some still do)
 If one web site causes trouble, entire browser can hang or crash
 Google Chrome Browser is multiprocess with 3 categories
 Browser process manages user interface, disk and network I/O
 Renderer process renders web pages, deals with HTML, Javascript,
new one for each website opened
 Runs in sandbox restricting disk and network I/O, minimizing effect of security exploits
 Plug-in process for each type of plug-in
 INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION
 Processes within a system may be independent or cooperating
 Cooperating process can affect or be affected by other processes,
including sharing data
 Reasons for cooperating processes:
 Informationsharing
 Computation speedup
 Modularity
 Convenience

 Cooperating processes need interprocess communication (IPC)

 Two models of IPC
 Sharedmemory
 Message passing
COMMUNICATIONS MODELS
 COOPERATING PROCESSES
 Independent process cannot affect or be affected by the
execution of another process

 Cooperating process can affect or be affected by the execution of

another process

 Advantages of process cooperation

 Informationsharing
 Computation speed-up
 Modularity
 Convenience
PRODUCER-CONSUMER PROBLEM

 Paradigm for cooperating processes, producer process

produces information that is consumed by a consumer
process
 unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of the
buffer
 bounded-buffer assumes that there is a fixed buffer size
BOUNDED-BUFFER – SHARED-MEMORY SOLUTION

 Shared data
#define BUFFER_SIZE 10
typedef struct {
. . .
} item;

item buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
int in = 0;
int out = 0;
 Solution is correct, but can only use BUFFER_SIZE-1
elements
BOUNDED-BUFFER – PRODUCER

item next produced;

while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */
while (((in + 1) % BUFFER SIZE) == out)
; /* do nothing */
buffer[in] = next produced;
in = (in + 1) % BUFFER SIZE;
}
BOUNDED BUFFER – CONSUMER
item next consumed;
while (true) {
while (in == out)
; /* do nothing */
next consumed = buffer[out];
out = (out + 1) % BUFFER SIZE;

/* consume the item in next consumed */

}
INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION – MESSAGE PASSING
 Mechanism for processes to communicate and to synchronize their actions
 Message system – processes communicate with each other without resorting
to shared variables
 IPC facility provides two operations:
– message size fixed or variable
 send(message)
 receive(message)
 If P and Q wish to communicate, they need to:
 establish
a communication link between them
 exchange messages via send/receive

 Implementation of communication link

 physical (e.g., shared memory, hardware bus)
 logical (e.g., direct or indirect, synchronous or asynchronous, automatic or explicit
buffering)
 IMPLEMENTATION QUESTIONS
 How are links established?
 Can a link be associated with more than two processes?

 How many links can there be between every pair of

communicating processes?
 What is the capacity of a link?

 Is the size of a message that the link can accommodate fixed or

variable?
 Is a link unidirectional or bi-directional?
DIRECT COMMUNICATION
 Processes must name each other explicitly:
 send(P, message) – send a message to process P
 receive(Q, message) – receive a message from process Q

 Properties of communication link

 Links are established automatically
 A link is associated with exactly one pair of communicating processes
 Between each pair there exists exactly one link
 The link may be unidirectional, but is usually bi-directional
INDIRECT COMMUNICATION
 Messages are directed and received from mailboxes (also referred
to as ports)
 Each mailbox has a unique id
 Processes can communicate only if they share a mailbox

 Properties of communication link

 Link established only if processes share a common mailbox
 A link may be associated with many processes
 Each pair of processes may share several communication links
 Link may be unidirectional or bi-directional
INDIRECT COMMUNICATION
 Operations
 createa new mailbox
 send and receive messages through mailbox
 destroy a mailbox

 Primitives are defined as:

send(A, message) – send a message to mailbox A
receive(A, message) – receive a message from mailbox A
INDIRECT COMMUNICATION
 Mailbox sharing
 P1, P2, and P3 share mailbox A
 P1, sends; P2 and P3 receive
 Who gets the message?

 Solutions
 Allow a link to be associated with at most two processes
 Allow only one process at a time to execute a receive operation
 Allow the system to select arbitrarily the receiver. Sender is notified who
the receiver was.
SYNCHRONIZATION
 Message passing may be either blocking or non-blocking

 Blocking is considered synchronous

 Blocking send has the sender block until the message is received
 Blocking receive has the receiver block until a message is available

 Non-blocking is considered asynchronous

 Non-blocking send has the sender send the message and continue
 Non-blocking receive has the receiver receive a valid message or
null
}
SYNCHRONIZATION (CONT.)
 Different combinations possible
 If both send and receive are blocking, we have a rendezvous
 Producer-consumer becomes trivial

message next produced;

while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */
send(next
message produced);
next consumed;
}
while (true) {
receive(next consumed);

/* consume the item in next consumed */

}
BUFFERING
 Queue of messages attached to the link; implemented in one of
three ways
1. Zero capacity – 0 messages
Sender must wait for receiver (rendezvous)
2. Bounded capacity – finite length of n messages
Sender must wait if link full
3. Unbounded capacity – infinite length
Sender never waits
 EXAMPLES OF IPC SYSTEMS - POSIX
 POSIX Shared Memory
 Process first creates shared memory segment
shm_fd = shm_open(name, O CREAT | O RDRW, 0666);
 Also used to open an existing segment to share it
 Set the size of the object
ftruncate(shm fd, 4096);
 Now the process could write to the shared memory
sprintf(shared memory, "Writing to shared
memory");
IPC POSIX PRODUCER
IPC POSIX CONSUMER
 EXAMPLES OF IPC SYSTEMS - MACH

 Mach communication is message based

 Even system calls are messages
 Each task gets two mailboxes at creation- Kernel and Notify
 Only three system calls needed for message transfer

msg_send(), msg_receive(), msg_rpc()

 Mailboxes needed for commuication, created via

port_allocate()
 Send and receive are flexible, for example four options if mailbox full:
 Wait indefinitely
 Wait at most n milliseconds
 Return immediately
 Temporarily cache a message
EXAMPLES OF IPC SYSTEMS – WINDOWS

 Message-passing centric via advanced local procedure call

(LPC) facility
 Only works between processes on the same system
 Uses ports (like mailboxes) to establish and maintain communication
channels
 Communication works as follows:
 The client opens a handle to the subsystem’s connection port object.
 The client sends a connection request.
 The server creates two private communication ports and returns the handle to one of them to the client.
 The client and server use the corresponding port handle to send messages or callbacks and to listen for
replies.
LOCAL PROCEDURE CALLS IN WINDOWS XP
 COMMUNICATIONS IN CLIENT-SERVER SYSTEMS

 Sockets

 Remote Procedure Calls

 Pipes

 Remote Method Invocation (Java)

SOCKETS
 A socket is defined as an endpoint for communication
 Concatenation of IP address and port – a number included
at start of message packet to differentiate network services
on a host
 The socket 161.25.19.8:1625 refers to port 1625 on host
161.25.19.8
 Communication consists between a pair of sockets

 All ports below 1024 are well known, used for standard
services
 Special IP address 127.0.0.1 (loopback) to refer to system
on which process is running
SOCKET COMMUNICATION
SOCKETS IN JAVA
 Three types of sockets
 Connection-oriented
(TCP)
 Connectionless (UDP)
 MulticastSocket
class– data can be sent to
multiple recipients

 Consider this “Date”

server:
REMOTE PROCEDURE CALLS
 Remote procedure call (RPC) abstracts procedure calls between processes on networked
systems
 Again uses ports for service differentiation
 Stubs – client-side proxy for the actual procedure on the server
 The client-side stub locates the server and marshalls the parameters
 The server-side stub receives this message, unpacks the marshalled parameters, and
performs the procedure on the server
 On Windows, stub code compile from specification written in Microsoft Interface
Definition Language (MIDL)
 Data representation handled via External Data Representation (XDL) format to account
for different architectures
 Big-endian and little-endian
 Remote communication has more failure scenarios than local
 Messages can be delivered exactly once rather than at most once
 OS typically provides a rendezvous (or matchmaker) service to connect client and server
EXECUTION OF RPC
PIPES
 Acts as a conduit allowing two processes to communicate

 Issues
 Is communication unidirectional or bidirectional?
 In the case of two-way communication, is it half or full-duplex?
 Must there exist a relationship (i.e. parent-child) between the
communicating processes?
 Can the pipes be used over a network?
ORDINARY PIPES
 Ordinary Pipes allow communication in standard producer-consumer style

 Producer writes to one end (the write-end of the pipe)

 Consumer reads from the other end (the read-end of the pipe)

 Ordinary pipes are therefore unidirectional

 Require parent-child relationship between communicating processes

 Windows calls these anonymous pipes

 See Unix and Windows code samples in textbook
NAMED PIPES
 Named Pipes are more powerful than ordinary pipes

 Communication is bidirectional

 No parent-child relationship is necessary between the

communicating processes

 Several processes can use the named pipe for communication

 Provided on both UNIX and Windows systems