Processes

Process Concept

• An operating system executes a variety of programs that

run as a process.
• Process – a program in execution; process execution must
progress in sequential fashion. No parallel execution of
instructions of a single process
• 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
 Process Concept (Cont.)

• Program is passive entity stored on disk

(executable file); process is active
• Program becomes process when an executable file is
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
Memory Layout of a C Program
 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
 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
• Explore in detail in Chapter 4 in text book
 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

• Process scheduler selects among available processes for

next execution on CPU core
• Goal -- Maximize CPU use, quickly switch processes onto
CPU core
• Maintains scheduling queues of processes
• Ready queue – set of all processes residing in main memory,
ready and waiting to execute
• Wait queues – set of processes waiting for an event (i.e., I/O)
• Processes migrate among the various queues
Ready and Wait Queues
Representation of Process Scheduling
 CPU Switch From Process to Process
A context switch occurs when the CPU switches from
one process to another.
 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 pure 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
 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
 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
• Parent process calls wait()waiting for the child to terminate
C Program Forking Separate Process
 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. 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) Shared memory. (b) Message passing.
 Producer-Consumer Problem

• Paradigm for cooperating processes:

• producer process produces information that is consumed
by a consumer process

• Two variations:
• unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of
the buffer:
• Producer never waits
• Consumer waits if there is no buffer to consume
• bounded-buffer assumes that there is a fixed buffer size
• Producer must wait if all buffers are full
• Consumer waits if there is no buffer to consume
 IPC – 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
Chapters 6 & 7.
 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
 Producer Process – Shared Memory

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;
}
 Consumer Process – Shared Memory

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 */

}
 What about Filling all the Buffers?

• 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.
• The integer counter is incremented by the producer
after it produces a new buffer.
• The integer counter is 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}
 Race Condition (Cont.)

• Question– why was there no race

condition in the first solution
(where at most N – 1) buffers can
be filled?
• More in Chapter 6.
 IPC – Message Passing

• 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?
 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 (Cont.)

• Operations
• Create a new mailbox (port)
• Send and receive messages through mailbox
• Delete 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 (Cont.)

• 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
 Producer-Consumer: Message Passing

• Producer
message next_produced;
while (true) {
/* produce an item in next_produced */

send(next_produced);
}

• Consumer
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
• 1. The systems which allow only one process execution at
a time, are called __________
a) uniprogramming systems
b) uniprocessing systems
c) unitasking systems
d) none of the mentioned
• Answer: b
Explanation: Those systems which allow more than one
process execution at a time, are called multiprocessing
systems. Uniprocessing means only one processor.
• 2. In operating system, each process has its own
__________
a) address space and global variables
b) open files
c) pending alarms, signals and signal handlers
d) all of the mentioned
• Answer: d
Explanation: In Operating Systems, each process has its
own address space which contains code, data, stack and
heap segments or sections. Each process also has a list of
files which is opened by the process as well as all pending
alarms, signals and various signal handlers.
• 3. In Unix, Which system call creates the new process?
a) fork
b) create
c) new
d) none of the mentioned
• Answer: a
Explanation: In UNIX, a new process is created by fork()
system call. fork() system call returns a process ID which
is generally the process id of the child process created.
Thank You !!