Scribd
Upload
26 views8 pages

Slides Os - Tut

The document discusses Linux process and thread creation using fork, exec, clone, and pthreads system calls. It provides code snippets and documentation for each call. fork duplicates the calling process, exec replaces the current process with a new image, and clone creates a new process with more control over shared execution context. pthreads allows creating new threads using POSIX interfaces like pthread_create. The mini-problem asks to create a utility that prints each file name before using cat to print the contents, creating a new cat process for each file.

Uploaded by

Vipul Raj Jha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
26 views8 pages

Slides Os - Tut

The document discusses Linux process and thread creation using fork, exec, clone, and pthreads system calls. It provides code snippets and documentation for each call. fork duplicates the calling process, exec replaces the current process with a new image, and clone creates a new process with more control over shared execution context. pthreads allows creating new threads using POSIX interfaces like pthread_create. The mini-problem asks to create a utility that prints each file name before using cat to print the contents, creating a new cat process for each file.

Uploaded by

Vipul Raj Jha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 8

Tutorial 4

Process and Threads


fork system call
#include <unistd.h>
pid_t fork(void);

fork() creates a new process by duplicating the calling process.


The new process is referred to as the child process.
On success, the PID of the child process is returned in the parent, and 0 is
returned in the child. On failure, -1 is returned in the parent, no child process is
created.
man fork [Also at https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/fork.2.html]
exec system call
#include <unistd.h>

The exec() family of functions replaces the current process image with a new
process image.
execl, execlp, execle, execv, execvp, execvpe

The exec() functions return only if an error has occurred. The return value is -1.
man exec [Also at https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/exec.3.html]
clone system call
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <sched.h>
int clone(int (*fn)(void *), void *stack, int flags, void
*arg, ...);
Creates a new (“child”) process, in a matter similar to fork. This provides more
precise control over what pieces of execution context are shared between the
calling process and the child process. For example, the caller can control
whether or not the two processes share the virtual address space, the table of file
descriptors, and the table of signal handlers.
Like others, returns -1 on failure.

man clone
Getting confused?

This gives a good overview of these all, and why you would prefer one over the
above:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4856255/the-difference-between-fork-vfork-
exec-and-clone

This is an excellent dive into Linux semantics over process and thread creation:
https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2018/launching-linux-threads-and-processes-with-clo
ne
Threads

pthreads - POSIX threads

POSIX.1 specifies a set of interfaces (functions, header files) for threaded programming
commonly known as POSIX threads, or Pthreads.

Difference between process and threads?


pthread_create(): create a new thread
int pthread_create(pthread_t *restrict thread,

const pthread_attr_t *restrict attr,

void *(*start_routine)(void *),

void *restrict arg);

man pthreads
https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/pthreads.7.html

Demo.
Mini-Problem [ not to worry, ungraded :) ]

cat file1 file2 .... filen

This prints the contents of all the files together on the standard output. However, it
becomes tough to find where a file ends and the next begins.

So, your task will be to make a utility program better_cat which will take a list of
files as arguments and for each file, print the name and then the contents.

While this is fully doable by yourself, for printing a file, you have to use cat.

Thus, you will be printing the name and then creating a new cat process (to print
the contents) for every file in arguments.

You might also like