Operating Systems · Processes and threads

Process creation and control

The fork, exec, and wait calls that create, replace, and clean up processes.

Also known as: fork, exec, wait, process lifecycle.

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• The process abstraction: A running program's isolated illusion of its own CPU and memory, tracked by the OS as a process control block.

Leads to

• Interprocess communication: Pipes, shared memory, and message passing, the ways separate processes exchange data safely.

Related topics

• Interprocess communication: Pipes, shared memory, and message passing, the ways separate processes exchange data safely.