Operating Systems

Process

FBA
Process Concept
What to call the activities of CPU ?

User Programs
Jobs or
Tasks
Batch System
Time Sharing
System

These activities are called “Processes”

★ The terms “job” and “process” are used almost interchangeably.

Process
A process is a program that is in execution.

But, it is more than the program codes. Program code is known as

“text section” of a process.

Besides code of the program, it contains -

● Program Counter and Registers: stores current activity of
the process
● Stack: Temporary data (function parameter, local variables,
return addresses etc.)
● Data Section: Global Variables
● Heap: dynamically allocated memory during runtime
Program Vs Process
● Program is a collection of instructions that can be executed
● A program is a passive entity.
● A process is an active entity.
● A program becomes a process when it is loaded into memory for execution.

next address to Program

Program execute counter
a=10 Loaded into …
b=5 memory ...
print(a+b)
Value of a is 10
Data section

program1.exe print(a+b)
b=5 Text section
a=10
Corresponding process in memory
Same program, Different Process

Process 1

Browser ( first window)

● Program code is same

Code 1 Process 2
● Data, Heap, Stacks
Browser ( second window) contains different
Browser program information

Process 3

Browser ( third window)

States of a Process
A process state defines the current activity of that process.

The states a process can be:

❏ New: Process is being created
❏ Running: Instructions are being executed
❏ Waiting: Process is waiting for some event to occur
❏ Ready: Waiting to be assigned to a processor
❏ Terminated: Process has finished execution
Process State Diagram
Representation of Processes in OS
Each process is represented in the operating system by a Process Control Block (PCB)
PCB is a data structure to store information of Processes such as -

Process state
Program counter
CPU registers
CPU scheduling information
Memory-management information
Accounting information
I/O status information
 Operating Systems
Process Scheduling

FBA
Process Scheduling
Multiple process is ready to execute.
But, which Process should be executed first?

P1
P4 P1 -> P3 -> P2 -> P4 -> P5 ?
C
P2 P1 -> P2 -> P3 -> P5 -> P4 ? P
U
P3
P5

CPU expecting processes to execute

Processes needs to be executed

Scheduling Queue
Stores the processes in different steps of OS.

Different queues are maintained in different steps.

Device 1

Device
Queue

Job Ready C
Queue Queue P
U
Device
Queue
● Reside in Secondary Memory ● Reside in Main Memory
● Keeps all the processes of the ● Keeps all the processes that
Processes wait here
system are waiting to be executed.
for the device to be
free Device 2
Queueing Diagram

Fig: Representation of Process Scheduling using Queueing-Diagram

Schedulers
Schedulers select processes from different queues to be passed to the next phase.

Long Term Short Term

Job Scheduler Ready Scheduler C
Queue Queue P
U

● Less frequently
executed. ● More frequently
● Controls degree of executed.
multiprogramming.
CPU Bound Vs I/O Bound Process
● CPU bound processes spend more time doing computation using processors than I/O.
● I/O bound processes spend more time in I/O than CPU.

Long Term Scheduler must select wisely !

● What will happen if all processes are I/O bound ? Ready

CPU End
Queue
=> Empty ready queue

● What will happen if all processes are CPU bound ? I/O

I/O
Queue

=> Empty waiting queue

Medium Term Scheduler
● Time-sharing system may use this scheduler.
● Swapping reduce the degree of multiprogramming.

Fig: Addition of swapping in Queueing-Diagram

Context Switch
When an interrupt occurs, the system needs to save the current context (state) of the process running on
the CPU.

Context Switch: 1. Storing currently executed process context

2. Restoring the next process context to execute

Overhead for context

switch from P0 to P1

Overhead for context

switch from P1 to P0
 Operating Systems
Operations on Process

FBA
Process Creation
● A process is identified by a unique PID (Process Identifier) in the OS.
● A process may create new processes.

P1
pid = 1

P2 P3 P4
Parent process pid = 8 pid = 58 pid = 63

P5 P6 P3
Child process pid = 51 pid = 38 pid = 55

● Child process obtain resources from OS or are restricted to Parent’s resources

● Parent process may pass initializing data to child process
Process Creation
● When a process creates new process -

The parent continues to execute concurrently with its children

Or,
The parent waits until some or all of its children have terminated

● Two address-space possibilities for the new process -

The child process is a duplicate of the parent process

Or
The child process has a new program loaded into it.
Process creation in UNIX
System Call: offers the services of the operating system to the user programs.

fork(): create a new process, which becomes the child process of the caller

exec(): runs an executable file , replacing the previous executable

wait(): suspends execution of the current process until one of its children terminates.

Fig: Process creation using fork() system

call
int main(){
fork();
fork();
printf(“A”);
}

int main(){
fork();
fork();
fork();
printf(“A”);
}
int main(){
a = fork();
if(a==0) fork();
fork();
printf(“A”);
}

int main(){
fork();
a = fork();
if(a==0) fork();
printf(“A”);
}
int main(){
int x = 1;
a = fork();
if(a==0){
x = x -1;
printf(“value of x is: %d”, x);
}
else if (a>0){
wait(NULL);
x = x +1;
printf(“value of x is: %d”, x);
}
}
Process Termination
A process is terminated when -
It executes its last statement
Or
Termination cause by another process

When a process is terminated, the resources are deallocated.

A parent may terminate its child if -

1. Child has exceeded the usage of resources
2. Task assigned to child is no longer needed
3. Parent is exiting ( cascading termination)
Zombie Process in UNIX

wait()
Parent Parent
Process Process

fork()

Child Child Zombie

Process exec() Process exit() Process
 Operating Systems
Interprocess Communication

FBA
Processes in the system
Processes running concurrently may be -
Independent (cannot affect or be affected by other process)
Or
Cooperating (can affect or be affected by other process)

Process cooperation is needed for -

➔ Information sharing
➔ Computational speedup
➔ Modularity
➔ Convenience
Inter Process Communication
IPC is a mechanism to exchange data and information among processes.

Two fundamental model of IPC -

1. Shared Memory
2. Message Passing
Shared Memory System
(Producer-Consumer Problem)

Producer: produces products for consumer

Consumer: consumes products provided by producer

Produce Consume
Share Space /
Buffer
Producer Consumer
Producer-Consumer Problem (Producer)

in: next free position in buffer

out: first full position in buffer

Both initialized with 0.

in = 0
out = 0

Here, BUFFER_SIZE = 7

When buffer is full, When buffer is not full,

in = 6 , out = 0 In = 4, out = 0

[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Producer-Consumer Problem (Consumer)

in: next free position in buffer

out: first full position in buffer

Both initialized with 0.

in = 0
out = 0

Here, BUFFER_SIZE = 7
When buffer is not empty,
When buffer is empty,
In = 5, out = 0
in = 0 , out = 0

[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Message Passing System
If processes P and Q want to communicate, they must send messages to and receive messages
from each other.

A communication link must exist between P and Q.

send(message)

P M1 M2 M3 M4 Q

receive(message)

● Useful for exchanging small amount of data

● More suited for distributed systems than shared memory