Chapter 3: Processes

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Chapter 3: Processes
 Process Concept
 Process Scheduling
 Operations on Processes
 Interprocess Communication
 Examples of IPC Systems
 Communication in Client-Server Systems

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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
 To explore interprocess communication using shared memory
and message passing
 To describe communication in client-server systems

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 via GUI mouse clicks, command
line entry of its name, etc
 One program can be several processes
 Consider multiple users executing the same program e.g.
mail program, multiple excel files open, multiple internet
explorer’s open

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Process in Memory

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Diagram of Process State

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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-IR, Stack Registers,PC
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 CPU Switch From Process to Process

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 */

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 The Linux process descriptor

pagedir[]
task_struct
state
mm_struct
Each process *stack
descriptor
contains many flags *pgd
fields
*mm
and some are user_struct
exit_code
pointers to
other kernel *user
structures
files_struct
pid
which may
themselves *files
include fields signal_struct
that point to *parent
structures
*signal

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Tasks have ’states’

From kernel-header: <linux/sched.h>

#define TASK_RUNNING 0
#define TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE 1
#define TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE2
#define TASK_STOPPED 4
#define TASK_TRACED 8
#define TASK_NONINTERACTIVE 64
#define TASK_DEAD 128

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Fields in a process-descriptor

struct task_struct {
volatile long state;
void *stack;
unsigned long flags;
struct mm_struct *mm;
struct thread_struct *thread;
pid_t pid;
char comm[16];
/* plus many other fields */
};

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 The kernel’s ‘task-list’
Kernel keeps a list of process descriptors
A ‘doubly-linked’ circular list is used
The ‘init_task’ serves as a fixed header
Other tasks inserted/deleted dynamically
Tasks have forward & backward pointers, implemented as fields in the ‘tasks’
field
To go forward: task = next_task( task );
To go backward: task = prev_task( task );

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Doubly-linked circular list

next_task

init_task … newest
(pid=0) task

prev_tas
k

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Ready Queue And Various I/O Device Queues

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Representation of Process Scheduling

 Queueing diagram represents queues, resources, flows

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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
 Long-term scheduler strives for good process mix

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Multitasking in Mobile Systems
 Some mobile systems (e.g., early version of iOS) 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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  the longer the
context switch
 Time dependent on hardware support
 Some hardware provides multiple sets of registers per CPU
 multiple contexts loaded at once

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Operations on Processes

 System must provide mechanisms for:

 process creation,
 process termination,
 and so on as detailed next

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 A Tree of Processes in Linux

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 C Program Forking Separate Process

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Extra
• Exit system call (abortFunction.docx)
• Fork and Exec (Fork_and_Exec.docx)
• Return vs Exit (returnVSexit.docx)

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 wait() system call

The wait() system call is passed a parameter that allows the parent
to obtain the exit status of the child.

This system call also returns the process identifier of the terminated
child so that the parent can tell which of its children has terminated:

pid t pid;
int status;
pid = wait(&status);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Process Table
• The process table is a data structure

• maintained by the operating system

• to facilitate context switching and scheduling

• Each entry in the table, often called a context block,

• contains information about a process
• such as process name and state
• priority
• Registers

• In some systems, the index of a process table entry associated with a process
• serves to identify the process, and is known as the process id of the process.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Process Table and PCB
A multi-programming OS needs to keep track of all the processes.
PCB contains information about the process; Process table is an array of
PCB’s

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Zombie Process
When a process terminates,

its resources are deallocated by the operating system.

However, its entry in the process table must remain there

until the parent calls wait(),
because the process table contains the process’s exit status.

A process that has terminated, but whose parent has not yet called
wait(), is
known as a zombie process.

All processes transition to this state when they terminate, but generally
they exist as zombies only briefly.

Once the parent calls wait(), the process identifier of the zombie
process and its entry in the process table are released.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Orphan Process
What would happen

if a parent did not invoke wait()

and
parent terminated,

thereby leaving its child processes as orphans.

UNIX address this scenario by

assigning the init process as the new parent to orphan

processes.

The init process periodically invokes wait(),

thereby allowing the exit status of any orphaned process to be

collected and releasing the orphan’s process identifier and
process-table entry.
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 The wait(NULL) means

I do not care to know which child died or

what exit status the child exited with, or

even whether there was a child to wait for

If you call wait(NULL) (wait(2)), you only wait for any child to terminate.

With wait(&status) you wait for a child to terminate

but you want to know some information about it's termination.

If waitpid() is called with a process id it waits for that specific child

process to change its state

pid_t wait(int *status):- returns the process id that has changed its state

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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. The call returns status information and the pid of the
terminated process
pid = wait(&status);

 When a child process terminates, if the parent has yet not invoked wait(),
child process is a zombie
 If parent terminated without invoking wait , child process is an orphan

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 A process that has terminated, but whose parent has not yet called
wait(), is known as a zombie process.

All processes transition to this state when they terminate, but generally
they exist as zombies only briefly.

Once the parent calls wait(), the process identifier of the zombie
process and its entry in the process table are released.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Figure 3.30 (Q 3.1) What output will be at Line A?

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int value = 5;

int main()
{
pid t pid;
pid = fork();
if (pid == 0) { /* child process */
value += 15;
return 0;
}
else if (pid > 0) { /* parent process */
wait(NULL);
printf("PARENT: value = %d",value); /* LINE A */
return 0;
}
}
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.86 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Figure 3.31 (Q 3.2) How many processes are
created, including the initial parent?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main()
{
/* fork a child process */
fork();
/* fork another child process */
fork();
/* and fork another */
fork();
return 0;
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.87 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Figure 3.32 (Q 3.12) Including the initial parent
process, how many processes are created by
the program

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main()
{
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 4; i+
+)
fork();
return 0;
}
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.88 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Figure 3.33 (Q 3.13) When will LINE J be
reached?
#include else if (pid == 0) { /*
<sys/types.h> child process */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h> execlp("/bin/ls","ls",N
int main() ULL);
{ printf("LINE J");
pid t pid; }
/* fork a child else { /* parent
process */ process */
pid = fork(); /* parent will
if (pid < 0) { /* wait for the
error */ child to complete */
fprintf(stderr, wait(NULL);
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.89 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 End of Chapter 3

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013