Chapter 3: Processes
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Chapter 3: Processes
Process Concept
Process Scheduling
Operations on Processes
Interprocess Communication
Examples of IPC Systems
Communication in Client-Server Systems
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Objectives
To introduce the notion of a process -- a program in
execution, which forms the basis of all computation
To describe the various features of processes, including
scheduling, creation and termination, and communication
To explore interprocess communication using shared memory
and message passing
To describe communication in client-server systems
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Process Concept
An operating system executes a variety of programs:
Batch system – jobs
Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
Textbook uses the terms job and process almost interchangeably
Process – a program in execution; process execution must
progress in sequential fashion
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
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Process Concept (Cont.)
Program is passive entity stored on disk (executable file),
process is active
Program becomes process when executable file 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
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Process in Memory
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
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
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Diagram of Process State
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
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
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
CPU Switch From Process to Process
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
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
See next chapter
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Operations on Processes
System must provide mechanisms for:
process creation,
process termination,
and so on as detailed next
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
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
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
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 interposes communication (IPC)
Two models of IPC
Shared memory
Message passing
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Examples of IPC Systems – Windows
Message-passing centric via advanced local procedure call
facility
Only works between processes on the same system
Uses ports (like mailboxes) to establish and maintain
communication channels
Communication works as follows:
The client opens a handle to the subsystem’s
connection port object.
The client sends a connection request.
The server creates two private communication ports
and returns the handle to one of them to the client.
The client and server use the corresponding port handle
to send messages or callbacks and to listen for replies.
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Local Procedure Calls in Windows
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Communications in Client-Server Systems
Sockets
Remote Procedure Calls
Pipes
Remote Method Invocation (Java)
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Sockets
A socket is defined as an endpoint for communication
Concatenation of IP address and port – a number included at
start of message packet to differentiate network services on a
host
The socket [Link]:1625 refers to port 1625 on host
[Link]
Communication consists between a pair of sockets
All ports below 1024 are well known, used for standard
services
Special IP address [Link] (loopback) to refer to system on
which process is running
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 3.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
End of Chapter 3
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013