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Wait and Waitpid

The document describes an experiment to block a parent process from terminating before its child process using wait() and waitpid() system calls. It explains that waitpid() allows a parent to wait for a specific child process by PID, whereas wait() waits for any child. The algorithm has the parent fork a child, use waitpid() in a loop to check the child's status, and print messages until the child exits. This ensures the parent doesn't terminate before its child completes.

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123 views3 pages

Wait and Waitpid

The document describes an experiment to block a parent process from terminating before its child process using wait() and waitpid() system calls. It explains that waitpid() allows a parent to wait for a specific child process by PID, whereas wait() waits for any child. The algorithm has the parent fork a child, use waitpid() in a loop to check the child's status, and print messages until the child exits. This ensures the parent doesn't terminate before its child completes.

Uploaded by

pranay ambare
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EXPERIMENT NO.

AIM: Write a C program to block a parent process before termination of child process using
wait and waitpid.

THEORY:

wait() and waitpid():

 pid_t data type represents process IDs. Get the process ID of a process by calling getpid.
 The wait() system call suspends execution of the calling process until one of its children
terminates.
 The syntax of waitpid: pid_t waitpid (child_pid, &status, options);
 The waitpid() system call suspends execution of the calling process until a child specified
by pid argument has changed state. By default, waitpid() waits only for terminated
children, but this behavior is modifiable via the options argument.
 The interpretation of the pid argument for waitpid depends on its value:

 pid == −1 - Waits for any child process. In this respect, waitpid is equivalent


to wait.
 pid > 0 - Waits for the child whose process ID equals pid.
 pid == 0 - Waits for any child whose process group ID equals that of the calling
process.
 pid < −1 - Waits for any child whose process group ID equals the absolute value
of pid.

 Options Parameter
 WNOHANG: Return immediately if no child has exited.
 WIFEXITED: Returns true if the child terminated normally by returning
from main().
 WEXITSTATUS: Returns the exit status of the child. It employs only if
WIFEXITED returned true.
 WIFSIGNALED: Returns true if the child process was terminated by a
signal.

 The waitpid function provides three features that aren’t provided by the wait function:

1. The waitpid function lets us wait for one particular process, whereas


the wait function returns the status of any terminated child (popen function)
2. The waitpid function provides a nonblocking version of wait. There are times
when we want to fetch a child’s status, but we don’t want to block.
3. The waitpid function provides support for job control with
the WUNTRACED and WCONTINUED options.
ALGORITHM:
1. Declare pid of type pid_t
2. Declare t of type time_t
3. if pid < 0 then PRINT “Fork() error”
4. Else if pid = = 0 then Sleep a process for a while and exit.
5. Else If pid = = -1 then PRINT “Wait() Error”
6. Else
if pid = = 0 then get a time in seconds process, PRINT “Child Still running” and sleeps
the process.
7. Else if WIFEXITED(status) = true then returns the exit status of the child
8. Else returns child did not exit.

CONCLUSION: The waitpid wait for one particular process, whereas the wait function returns
the status of any terminated child process. Hence blocked a parent process before terminating the
chid process using wait() and waitpid() system call.

PROGRAM:

#define _POSIX_SOURCE
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
main() {
pid_t pid;
time_t t;
int status;

if ((pid = fork()) < 0)


perror("fork() error");
else if (pid == 0) {
sleep(5);
exit(1);
}
else do {
if ((pid = waitpid(pid, &status, WNOHANG)) == -1)
perror("wait() error");
else if (pid == 0) {
time(&t);
printf("child is still running at %s", ctime(&t));
sleep(1);
}
else {
if (WIFEXITED(status))
printf("child exited with status of %d\n", WEXITSTATUS(status));
else puts("child did not exit successfully");
}
} while (pid == 0);
}

OUTPUT:-

Child is still running at Thu Apr 12  07:15:06  2018


Child is still running at Thu Apr 12  07:15:07 2018
Child is still running at Thu Apr 12  07:15:08 2018
Child is still running at Thu Apr 12  07:15:09 2018
Child is still running at Thu Apr 12  07:15:10 2018
Child exited with status of 1

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