Operating System Security
IKB20103
Processes & Threads
Objectives
To introduce the notion of a process -- a
program in execution, which forms the basis
of all computation
To describe the various features of processes,
including scheduling, creation and
termination, and communication
Process Concept
An operating system executes a variety of programs:
Batch system – jobs
the execution of a series of jobs in a program on a computer without
manual intervention (non-interactive). Ex. System update
Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
Process – a program in execution; process execution must
progress in sequential fashion
Main concepts:
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
Process Concept (Cont.)
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 by using mouse click
One program can be several processes
Process in Memory
Function parameters, return
addresses, local variables
containing memory dynamically
allocated during run time
User data
program code
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 process control block(PCB))
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(passed 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
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
Queueing diagram represents queues, resources, flows
Schedulers
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 frequently (milliseconds) (must be fast)
Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects which
processes should be brought into the ready queue
Long-term scheduler is invoked 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
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
Operations on Processes
System must provide mechanisms for:
process creation,
process termination,
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
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pi d = 1
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pi d = 8415 pi d = 2 pi d = 3028
bas h khe l pe r pdf l us h s s hd
pi d = 8416 pi d = 6 pi d = 200 pi d = 3610
e mac s t cs ch
ps
pi d = 9204 pi d = 4005
pi d = 9298
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
Process Termination
Process executes last statement and then asks the operating
system to delete it using the exit() system call.
Returns status data from child to parent (via wait())
Process resources are deallocated by operating system
Parent may terminate the execution of children processes
using the abort() system call. Some reasons for doing so:
Child has exceeded allocated resources
Task assigned to child is no longer required
The parent is exiting and the operating systems does not
allow a child to continue if its parent terminates
Process Termination
Some operating systems do not allow child to exists if
its parent has terminated. If a process terminates,
then all its children must also be terminated.
cascading termination. All children, grandchildren,
etc. are terminated.
The termination is initiated by the operating system.
The parent process may wait for termination of a child
process by using the wait()system call.
Multiprocessor 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 multiprocessor with 2 different types of
processes:
Browser process manages user interface, disk and network I/O
Renderer process renders web pages, deals with HTML, Javascript.
A new renderer created for each website opened
Q&A
