M.S.

Ramaiah Institute of Technology

(Autonomous Institute, Affiliated to VTU)
Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Course Name: Operating Systems: CS51

Credits: 3:1:0

Term: September – December 2020

Faculty:
Chandkrika Prasad
Vandana S Sardar
 Process Concept
The contents in this presentation are selected from
Operating Systems Concepts – 9th Edition, Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne @2013

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Operations on Processes
System must provide mechanisms for:
◦ Process creation
◦ Process 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
Fork() system call
System call fork() is used to create processes.
The purpose of fork() is to create a new process, which becomes the child process of the caller.
After a new child process is created, both processes will execute the next instruction following
the fork() system call.
Therefore, we have to distinguish the parent from the child. This can be done by testing the
returned value of fork():
If fork() returns a negative value, the creation of a child process was unsuccessful.
fork() returns a zero to the newly created child process.
fork() returns a positive value, the process ID of the child process, to the parent. The returned
process ID is of type pid_t defined in sys/types.h

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Fork() system call

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Fork() system call

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Fork() system call

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Fork() system call

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Fork() system call

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Fork() system call

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Fork() system call

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Fork() system call

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Fork() system call

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 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
Output??
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main()
{ Hello world!
Hello world!
// make two process which run same
// program after this instruction
fork();

printf("Hello world!\n");
return 0;
}

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Output??
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
int main() hello
{ hello
hello
fork(); hello
fork(); hello
hello
fork(); hello
printf("hello\n"); hello
return 0;
}

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Explanation of output

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Explanation of output

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Output??
include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
void forkexample()
{
if (fork() == 0) // child process because return value zero
printf("Hello from Child!\n");
// parent process because return value non-zero.
else
printf("Hello from Parent!\n");
}
int main()
{ forkexample();
return 0;
}

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Output??
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
void forkexample()
{
int x = 1;
if (fork() == 0)
printf("Child has x = %d\n", ++x);
else
printf("Parent has x = %d\n", --x);
}
int main()
{
forkexample();
return 0;
}

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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’s 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. The call returns status information and the pid of the terminated process
pid = wait(&status);
• If no parent waiting (did not invoke wait()) process is a zombie
• If parent terminated without invoking wait , process is an orphan
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:
• Information sharing
• Computation speedup
• Modularity
• Convenience

• Cooperating processes need interprocess communication (IPC)

• Two models of IPC
• Shared memory
• Message passing
Communications Models

(a) Message passing. (b) shared memory.

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
• Information sharing
• 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 – Shared Memory

• An area of memory shared among the processes that wish to communicate

• The communication is under the control of the users processes not the operating system.
• Major issues is to provide mechanism that will allow the user processes to synchronize their
actions when they access shared memory.
• Synchronization is discussed in great details in Chapter 5.
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:

• send(message)
• receive(message)

• The message size is either fixed or variable

 Message Passing (Cont.)

• If processes P and Q wish to communicate, they need to:

• Establish a communication link between them
• Exchange messages via send/receive

• Implementation issues:
• 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?
Message Passing (Cont.)

• Implementation of communication link

• Physical:
• Shared memory
• Hardware bus
• Network
• Logical:
• Direct or indirect
• Synchronous or asynchronous
• Automatic or explicit buffering
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
• create a new mailbox (port)
• 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 -- the sender is blocked until the message is received
◦ Blocking receive -- the receiver is blocked until a message is available

Non-blocking is considered asynchronous

◦ Non-blocking send -- the sender sends the message and continue
◦ Non-blocking receive -- the receiver receives:
A valid message, or
Null message

nDifferent combinations possible

l If both send and receive are blocking, we have a rendezvous
Synchronization (Cont.)
nProducer-consumer becomes trivial

message next_produced;
while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */

send(next_produced);
}

message 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 – no messages are queued on a link.
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
Process Synchronization
The contents in this presentation are selected from
Operating Systems Concepts – 9th Edition, Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne @2013

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING 43

 Background
• Processes can execute concurrently
• May be interrupted at any time, partially completing execution

• Concurrent access to shared data may result in data inconsistency

• Maintaining data consistency requires mechanisms to ensure the orderly execution of
cooperating processes
• Illustration of the problem:

Suppose that we wanted to provide a solution to the consumer-producer problem that fills all the
buffers. We can do so by having an integer counter that keeps track of the number of full
buffers. Initially, counter is set to 0. It is incremented by the producer after it produces a new
buffer and is decremented by the consumer after it consumes a buffer.
Producer
while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */

while (counter == BUFFER_SIZE) ;

/* do nothing */
buffer[in] = next_produced;
in = (in + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;
counter++;
}
Consumer
while (true) {

while (counter == 0)
; /* do nothing */

next_consumed = buffer[out];
out = (out + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;
counter--;

/* consume the item in next consumed */

}
Race Condition
counter++ could be implemented as

register1 = counter
register1 = register1 + 1
counter = register1

counter-- could be implemented as

register2 = counter
register2 = register2 - 1
counter = register2

Consider this execution interleaving with “count = 5” initially:

S0: producer execute register1 = counter {register1 = 5}
S1: producer execute register1 = register1 + 1 {register1 = 6}
S2: consumer execute register2 = counter {register2 = 5}
S3: consumer execute register2 = register2 – 1 {register2 = 4}
S4: producer execute counter = register1 {counter = 6 }
S5: consumer execute counter = register2 {counter = 4}
Critical Section Problem
Consider system of n processes {p0, p1, … pn-1}
Each process has critical section segment of code
◦ Process may be changing common variables, updating table, writing file, etc
◦ When one process in critical section, no other may be in its critical section

Critical section problem is to design protocol to solve this

Each process must ask permission to enter critical section in entry section, may follow critical
section with exit section, then remainder section
Critical Section

General structure of process Pi

Algorithm for Process Pi
do {

while (turn == j);

critical section

turn = j;

remainder section
} while (true);
Solution to Critical-Section Problem
1. Mutual Exclusion - If process Pi is executing in its critical section, then no other
processes can be executing in their critical sections
2. Progress - If no process is executing in its critical section and there exist some processes
that wish to enter their critical section, then the selection of the processes that will enter
the critical section next cannot be postponed indefinitely
3. Bounded Waiting - A bound must exist on the number of times that other processes are
allowed to enter their critical sections after a process has made a request to enter its
critical section and before that request is granted
 Assume that each process executes at a nonzero speed
 No assumption concerning relative speed of the n processes
Critical-Section Handling in OS
Two approaches depending on if kernel is preemptive or non- preemptive
◦ Preemptive – allows preemption of process when running in kernel mode
◦ Non-preemptive – runs until exits kernel mode, blocks, or voluntarily yields CPU
◦ Essentially free of race conditions in kernel mode
Peterson’s Solution
Good algorithmic description of solving the problem
Two process solution
Assume that the load and store machine-language instructions are atomic; that is, cannot
be interrupted
The two processes share two variables:
◦ int turn;
◦ Boolean flag[2]

The variable turn indicates whose turn it is to enter the critical section
The flag array is used to indicate if a process is ready to enter the critical section. flag[i] =
true implies that process Pi is ready!
Algorithm for Process Pi
do {

flag[i] = true;

turn = j;
while (flag[j] && turn = = j);
critical section

flag[i] = false;
remainder section

} while (true);
Peterson’s Solution (Cont.)
Provable that the three CS requirement are met:
1. Mutual exclusion is preserved
Pi enters CS only if:
either flag[j] = false or turn = i
2. Progress requirement is satisfied
3. Bounded-waiting requirement is met
Synchronization Hardware
Many systems provide hardware support for implementing the critical section code.
All solutions below based on idea of locking
◦ Protecting critical regions via locks

Uniprocessors – could disable interrupts

◦ Currently running code would execute without preemption
◦ Generally too inefficient on multiprocessor systems
◦ Operating systems using this not broadly scalable

Modern machines provide special atomic hardware instructions

◦ Atomic = non-interruptible
◦ Either test memory word and set value
◦ Or swap contents of two memory words
Solution to Critical-section Problem Using Locks

do {
acquire lock
critical section

release lock

remainder section
} while (TRUE);
test_and_set Instruction
Definition:
boolean test_and_set (boolean *target)
{
boolean rv = *target;
*target = TRUE;
return rv:
}

1.Executed atomically
2.Returns the original value of passed parameter
3.Set the new value of passed parameter to “TRUE”.
Solution using test_and_set()
Shared Boolean variable lock, initialized to FALSE
Solution:
do {
while (test_and_set(&lock))
; /* do nothing */
/* critical section */
lock = false;
/* remainder section */
} while (true);
compare_and_swap Instruction
Definition:
int compare _and_swap(int *value, int expected, int new_value) {

int temp = *value;

if (*value == expected)

*value = new_value;

return temp;

1.Executed atomically
2.Returns the original value of passed parameter “value”
3.Set the variable “value” the value of the passed parameter “new_value” but only if “value”
==“expected”. That is, the swap takes place only under this condition.
 Solution using compare_and_swap
Shared integer “lock” initialized to 0;
Solution:
do {
while (compare_and_swap(&lock, 0, 1) != 0)
; /* do nothing */
/* critical section */

lock = 0;
/* remainder section */

} while (true);
Bounded-waiting Mutual Exclusion with test_and_set
do {
waiting[i] = true;
key = true;
while (waiting[i] && key)

key = test_and_set(&lock);
waiting[i] = false;
/* critical section */
j = (i + 1) % n;
while ((j != i) && !waiting[j])
j = (j + 1) % n;
if (j == i)
lock = false;
else

waiting[j] = false;
/* remainder section */
} while (true);
Mutex Locks
Previous solutions are complicated and generally inaccessible to application programmers
OS designers build software tools to solve critical section problem
Simplest is mutex lock
Protect a critical section by first acquire() a lock then release() the lock
Boolean variable indicating if lock is available or not

Calls to acquire() and release() must be atomic

Usually implemented via hardware atomic instructions

But this solution requires busy waiting

This lock therefore called a spinlock
acquire() and release()
acquire() {
while (!available)
; /* busy wait */
available = false;
}
release() {
available = true;
}
do {
acquire lock
critical section
release lock
remainder section
} while (true);
 Semaphore
Synchronization tool that provides more sophisticated ways (than Mutex locks) for process to synchronize their
activities.

Semaphore S – integer variable

Can only be accessed via two indivisible (atomic) operations

◦ wait() and signal()
◦ Originally called P() and V()
Semaphore
Definition of the wait() operation
wait(S) {
while (S <= 0)
; // busy wait
S--;
}

Definition of the signal() operation

signal(S) {
S++;
}

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Semaphore Usage
Counting semaphore – integer value can range over an unrestricted domain
Binary semaphore – integer value can range only between 0 and 1
◦ Same as a mutex lock

Can solve various synchronization problems

Consider P1 and P2 that require S1 to happen before S2

Create a semaphore “synch” initialized to 0
P1:
S1;
signal(synch);
P2:
wait(synch);
S2;

Can implement a counting semaphore S as a binary semaphore

Semaphore Implementation
Must guarantee that no two processes can execute the wait() and signal() on the same
semaphore at the same time
Thus, the implementation becomes the critical section problem where the wait and signal
code are placed in the critical section
◦ Could now have busy waiting in critical section implementation
◦ But implementation code is short
◦ Little busy waiting if critical section rarely occupied

Note that applications may spend lots of time in critical sections and therefore this is not a good
solution
Semaphore Implementation with no Busy waiting
With each semaphore there is an associated waiting queue
Each entry in a waiting queue has two data items:
◦ value (of type integer)
◦ pointer to next record in the list
Two operations:
◦ block – place the process invoking the operation on the appropriate waiting queue
◦ wakeup – remove one of processes in the waiting queue and place it in the ready queue
typedef struct{
int value;
struct process *list;
} semaphore;
Implementation with no Busy waiting (Cont.)
wait(semaphore *S) {
S->value--;
if (S->value < 0) {
add this process to S->list;
block();
}
}
signal(semaphore *S) {
S->value++;
if (S->value <= 0) {
remove a process P from S->list;
wakeup(P);
}
}
Deadlock and Starvation
Deadlock – two or more processes are waiting indefinitely for an event that can be caused by only one
of the waiting processes
Let S and Q be two semaphores initialized to 1
P0 P1
wait(S); wait(Q);
wait(Q); wait(S);
... ...
signal(S); signal(Q);
signal(Q); signal(S);

Starvation – indefinite blocking

◦ A process may never be removed from the semaphore queue in which it is suspended

Priority Inversion – Scheduling problem when lower-priority process holds a lock needed by higher-
priority process
◦ Solved via priority-inheritance protocol
Classical Problems of Synchronization
Classical problems used to test newly-proposed synchronization schemes
◦ Bounded-Buffer Problem
◦ Readers and Writers Problem
◦ Dining-Philosophers Problem
Bounded-Buffer Problem

n buffers, each can hold one item

Semaphore mutex initialized to the value 1
Semaphore full initialized to the value 0
Semaphore empty initialized to the value n
Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)
The structure of the producer process
do {
...
/* produce an item in next_produced */
...
wait(empty);
wait(mutex);
...
/* add next produced to the buffer */
...
signal(mutex);
signal(full);
} while (true);
Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)
The structure of the consumer process
do {
wait(full);

wait(mutex);
...
/* remove an item from buffer to next_consumed */
...

signal(mutex);
signal(empty);

...
/* consume the item in next consumed */
...
} while (true);
Readers-Writers Problem
A data set is shared among a number of concurrent processes
◦ Readers – only read the data set; they do not perform any updates
◦ Writers – can both read and write

Problem – allow multiple readers to read at the same time

◦ Only one single writer can access the shared data at the same time

Several variations of how readers and writers are considered – all involve some form of
priorities
Shared Data
◦ Data set
◦ Semaphore rw_mutex initialized to 1
◦ Semaphore mutex initialized to 1
◦ Integer read_count initialized to 0
Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)
The structure of a writer process

do {
wait(rw_mutex);

...
/* writing is performed */
...

signal(rw_mutex);
} while (true);
Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)
The structure of a reader process
do {
wait(mutex);
read_count++;
if (read_count == 1)
wait(rw_mutex);
signal(mutex);
...
/* reading is performed */
...
wait(mutex);
read count--;
if (read_count == 0)
signal(rw_mutex);
signal(mutex);
} while (true);
Readers-Writers Problem Variations
First variation – no reader kept waiting unless writer has permission to use shared object
Second variation – once writer is ready, it performs the write ASAP
Both may have starvation leading to even more variations
Problem is solved on some systems by kernel providing reader-writer locks
Dining-Philosophers Problem
Philosophers spend their lives alternating thinking and eating

Don’t interact with their neighbors, occasionally try to pick up 2 chopsticks (one at a time) to eat from bowl
◦ Need both to eat, then release both when done

In the case of 5 philosophers

◦ Shared data
◦ Bowl of rice (data set)
◦ Semaphore chopstick [5] initialized to 1
Dining-Philosophers Problem Algorithm
The structure of Philosopher i:
do {
wait (chopstick[i] );
wait (chopStick[ (i + 1) % 5] );

// eat

signal (chopstick[i] );
signal (chopstick[ (i + 1) % 5] );

// think

} while (TRUE);

What is the problem with this algorithm?

Dining-Philosophers Problem Algorithm (Cont.)

Deadlock handling
◦ Allow at most 4 philosophers to be sitting simultaneously at the table.
◦ Allow a philosopher to pick up the forks only if both are available (picking must be done in a critical
section.
◦ Use an asymmetric solution -- an odd-numbered philosopher picks up first the left chopstick and then
the right chopstick. Even-numbered philosopher picks up first the right chopstick and then the left
chopstick.
Problems with Semaphores
Incorrect use of semaphore operations:

◦ signal (mutex) …. wait (mutex)

◦ wait (mutex) … wait (mutex)

◦ Omitting of wait (mutex) or signal (mutex) (or both)

Deadlock and starvation are possible.