Chapter 5 – Processes
Operating System
A. Chikhaoui
2023-2024
Définition
A process is a running program.
Examples:
▶ a launched terminal is a process
▶ an executed command is a process
▶ an open directory is a process
▶ an open file is a process
▶ open browser Firefox or chrome is a process
▶ , etc.
Unix is a "multi-tasking" operating system. This means that it can run many processes
simultaneously
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Process Identification
When a process is created, it is often referred to as the "child" process, and the process
that initiated its creation is the "parent" process.
Each process is identified by:
▶ a PID identity (Process ID)
▶ the identity of its parent PPID (Parent Process ID)
▶ the user
▶ group
▶ the current directory
▶ priority
▶ etc.
A PID is a unique numerical identifier assigned to each running process.
PIDs are used by the operating system kernel to keep track of and manage individual
processes.
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Commands to get information about the processes
There are several commands in Linux/Unix systems, including Ubuntu, that you can use
to gather information about processes. Following are some commonly used commands:
▶ ps
▶ pstree
▶ top
▶ htop
▶ pgrep
▶ , etc.
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ps command
ps (process status) allows to display current processes launched by the user and from
the current terminal.
$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
126194 pts/0 [Link] bash
169546 pts/0 [Link] ps
This invocation of ps shows two [Link] first, bash, is the shell running on this
[Link] second is the running instance of the ps program itself
▶ PID Process ID, process number
▶ TTY name of the terminal from which the process was launched
▶ TIME process processing time
▶ CMD Command executed
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ps command
ps -f: The -f parameter is used to get more information.
$ ps-f
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
user1 126194 126175 0 09:44 pts/0 [Link] bash
user1 280088 126194 0 11:13 pts/0 [Link] ps -f
▶ UID: User ID, user name
▶ PPID: Parent Process ID.
▶ C: The percentage of the CPU time used by the process.
▶ STIME: The start time of the process..
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ps command
ps -ef: The -e parameter gives information about all running processes.
$ps -ef | head -n 6
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 1 0 0 10:20 ? [Link] /sbin/init splash
root 2 0 0 10:20 ? [Link] [kthreadd]
root 4 2 0 10:20 ? [Link] [kworker/0:0H]
root 6 2 0 10:20 ? [Link] [mm_percpu_wq]
root 7 2 0 10:20 ? [Link] [ksoftirqd/0]
Some other interesting options:
▶ -u allows you to specify a list of one or more users separated by a comma
▶ -g to specify groups
▶ -t to specify terminals
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pstree command
pstree: The pstree command gives a good illustration of the process hierarchy.
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pstree command
pstree -p The -p option allows to display the PIDs.
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top command
top: allows to display process information in real time. Information is refreshed every 03
seconds
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htop command
htop: This is an improvement of top.
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kill command
kill command in Unix-like operating systems is used to terminate or send signals to
processes. It allows to stop or interrupt processes running on your system.
kill -l: -l option allows to display the list of signals.
Some signals:
▶ SIGTERM
Meaning: Terminate. This signal asks the process to terminate gracefully.
▶ SIGKILL
Meaning: Kill. This signal forcefully terminates a process.
▶ SIGINT
Meaning: Interrupt. This signal is to interrupt a process.
By default, kill sends the SIGTERM(15) signal, which asks the process to terminate
gracefully.
$ kill 2023 $ kill -SIGKILL 2023
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killall
killall is used to send signals to, and terminate, processes based on their names.
Example
$ killall gedit
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Foreground and Background Tasks
1. A foreground task is a process that is currently executing and has control of the
terminal. This is the default execution mode for commands.
$ ls
▶ In this example, the command ls runs in the foreground.
2. A background task is a process that runs independently of the terminal and does not
block user input.
▶ To run a command in the background, you can append an ampersand (&) at the end of the
command.
▶ The following command runs in the background
$ cp file.mp4 /tmp/mp4/ &
If the file is very large, then copying it takes a long time and we cannot run other commands;
It is better to run the process in the background to recover the shell in order to run other
commands.
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Foreground and Background Tasks
The jobs command: allows you to view the list of background processes;
We can switch the process between background mode and foreground mode:
▶ To make a process in foreground (foreground) we use the command: fg
▶ To make a process in the background (backgrround) we use the command: bg
Example:
$ gedit &
$ xclock &
$ jobs
(1)- Running gedit &
(2)+ Running xclock &
$ fg 1
$ jobs
(2)+ Running xclock &
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