Processes

Course Code: CSC 2209 Course Title: Operating Systems

Dept. of Computer Science

Faculty of Science and Technology

Lecturer No: 04 Week No: Semester: Summer 2024-25

Assistant Professor Dr. Rajarshi Roy Chowdhury, [email protected]
Lecture Outline

1. Process Concept
2. Process Scheduling
3. Operations on Processes
4. Inter-process Communication (IPC)
5. Examples of IPC Systems
6. Communication in Client-Server Systems
Process Concept
❑ Process – a program in execution; process execution must progress in
sequential fashion

❑ 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
Process Structure
❑ A process is more than the program code, which is sometimes known as the
text section.
❑ It also includes the current activity:
❑ The value of the program counter
❑ The contents of the processor's registers.

❑ It also includes the process stack, which contains temporary data (such as
function parameters, return addresses, and local variables)
❑ It also includes the data section, which contains global variables, static
variable (once created stay forever).
❑ It may also include a heap, which is memory that is dynamically allocated
during process run time.
Process in Memory
Process State
❑ As a process executes, it changes state
❑ new: The process is being created
❑ ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a processor
❑ running: Instructions are being executed
❑ waiting: The process is waiting for some event to occur
❑ terminated: The process has finished execution
Process State
❑ Diagram of Process State
 Process Control Block (PCB)
Information associated with each process (use to present a process in
OS) (also called task control block)
❑ Process ID / Number – Unique ID.
❑ Process state – running, waiting, etc.
❑ Program counter – location of instruction to next execute (addr of
next inst)
❑ 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
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

❑ Need storage for thread details, multiple program counters in

PCB

❑ Covered in the next chapter

Process Representation in Linux
Represented by the C structure task_struct
pid t_pid; /* process identifier */
long state; /* state of the process */
unsigned int time_slice /* scheduling information */
struct task_struct *parent; /* this process’s parent
*/
struct list_head children; /* this process’s
children */
struct files_struct *files; /* list of open files */
struct mm_struct *mm; /* address space of this
process */
Process Scheduling
❑ Maximize CPU use
❑ Quickly switch processes onto CPU for time sharing

❑ Process “gives” up the CPU under two conditions:

❑ I/O request
❑ After N units of time have elapsed (need a timer)

❑ Once a process gives up the CPU it is added to the “ready

queue”
❑ Process scheduler selects among available processes in the
ready queue for next execution on CPU
Scheduling Queues
❑ OS Maintains scheduling queues of processes
❑ Job queue – set of all processes in the system
❑ Ready queue – set of all processes residing in main memory, ready and
waiting to execute
❑ Device queues – set of processes waiting for an I/O device
❑ Processes migrate among the various queues
Ready Queue And Various I/O Device Queues
Representation of Process Scheduling
❑ Queuing diagram represents queues, resources, flows
CPU Switch From Process to Process
Schedulers
❑ Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects which process should be executed next
and allocates a CPU
❑ Sometimes the only scheduler in a system
❑ Short-term scheduler is invoked frequently (milliseconds)  (must be fast)

❑ Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects which processes should be brought into
the ready queue
❑ Long-term scheduler is invoked infrequently (seconds, minutes)  (may be slow)
❑ The long-term scheduler controls the degree of multiprogramming

❑ Processes can be described as either:

❑ I/O-bound process – spends more time doing I/O than computations, many short CPU
bursts
❑ CPU-bound process – spends more time doing computations; few very long CPU
bursts

❑ Long-term scheduler strives for good process mix

Multitasking in Mobile Systems
❑ Some mobile systems (e.g., early version of iOS) allow only one
process to run, others suspended
❑ Starting with iOS 4, it provides for a
❑ Single foreground process – controlled via user interface
❑ Multiple background processes – in memory, running, but not on the
display, and with limits
❑ Limits include single, short task, receiving notification of events,
specific long-running tasks like audio playback

❑ Android runs foreground and background, with fewer limits

❑ Background process uses a service to perform tasks
❑ Service can keep running even if background process is suspended
❑ Service has no user interface, small memory use
Context Switch
❑ When CPU switches to another process, the
system must save the state of the old process
and load the saved state for the new process
via a context switch

❑ Context of a process represented in the PCB

❑ Context-switch time is pure overhead; the

system does no useful work while switching
❑ The more complex the OS and the PCB ➔
the longer the context switch

❑ Time dependent on hardware support

❑ Some hardware provides multiple sets of
registers per CPU ➔ multiple contexts
loaded at once
Operations on Processes
❑ System must provide mechanisms for:
❑ process creation,
❑ process termination,
❑ and so on as detailed next
Process Creation
❑ A process may create other processes.
❑ Parent process create children processes, which, in turn create
other processes, forming a tree of processes
❑ Generally, a process is identified and managed via a process
identifier (pid)
❑ A Tree of Processes in UNIX
Process Creation (cont’d)

❑ Resource sharing among parents and child options

❑ Parent and child 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
Process Creation (cont’d)

❑ Address space
❑ A child is a duplicate of the parent address space.
❑ A child loads a program into the address space.
❑ UNIX examples
❑ fork() system call creates new process
❑ exec() system call used after a fork() replaces the process’
memory space with a new program
C program to create a separate process in UNIX

int main()
{
pit.t pid;
/*fork a child process */
pid = fork();

if (pid < 0) { /* error occurred */

fprintf(stderr, “Fork Failed”);
return 1;
}
else if (pid == 0) { /*child process */
execlp(“/bin/ls”,”ls”,NULL);
}
else { /* parent process */
/* parent will wait for the child to complete */
wait(NULL);
printf(“Child Complete”);
}
return 0;
}
C Program Forking Separate Process
❑ The C program illustrates how to create a new process UNIX.

❑ After fork() there are two different processes running copies of the same program. The only
difference is that the value of pid for the child process is zero, while that for the parent is an
integer value greater than zero

❑ The child process inherits privileges and scheduling attributes from the parent, as well certain
resources, such as open files.

❑ The child process then overlays its address space with the UNIX command “ls” (used to get a
directory listing) using the execlp() (a version of the exec() system call).

❑ The parent waits for the child process to complete with the wait() system call.

❑ When the child process completes, the parent process resumes from the call to wait(), where it
completes using the exit() system call.
Creating a Separate Process via Windows API

int main(VOID)
{
STARTUPINFO si;
PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;

/* allocate memory */
ZeroMemory(&si, sizeof(si));
si.cb = sizeof(si);
ZeroMemory(&pi, sizeof(pi));

/* create child process */

if (!CreateProcess(NULL, /* use command line */
“C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\mspaint.exe”,/* command */
NULL, /* don’t inherit process handle */
NULL, /* don’t inherit threat handle */
FALSE, /* disable handle inheritance */
0, /* no creation flags */
NULL, /* use parent’s environment block */
NULL, /* use parent’s existing directory */
&si,
&pi))
{
Creating a Separate Process via Windows API (cont’d)

{
fprintf{stderr, “Create Process Failed”};
return -1;
}
/* parent will wait for the child to complete */
WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess, INFINITE);
printf(“Child Complete”);

/* close handles */
CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
}
Process Termination
❑ A process terminates when it finishes executing its final statement and
it asks the operating system to delete it by using the exit() system call.
❑ At that point, the process may return a status value (typically an integer)
to its parent process (via the wait() system call.
❑ All the resources of the process are deallocated by the operating system.

❑ A parent may terminate the execution of children processes using the

abort() system call. Some reasons for doing so:
❑ Child has exceeded allocated resources
❑ Task assigned to child is no longer required
❑ The parent is exiting and the operating systems does not allow a child to
continue if its parent terminates
Process Termination (cont’d)

❑ Some operating systems (OSs) do not allow a child process to exists if its parent has terminated.
If a process terminates, then all its children must also be terminated.
❑ cascading termination. All children, grandchildren, etc. are terminated.
❑ The termination is initiated by the OS.

❑ The parent process may wait for termination of a child process by using the wait() system call.
The call returns status information and the pid of the terminated process

❑ pid = wait(&status);

❑ If no parent waiting (did not invoke wait()) process is zombie

❑ Status table yes but running no but parent process need to call exit() system

❑ If parent terminated without invoking wait, process is orphan

❑ Running yes but parent running no

 Inter process Communication (IPC)
❑ Processes within a system may be independent or cooperating
❑ Cooperating processes can affect or be affected by other processes,
including sharing data
❑ Independent processes cannot affect other processes

❑ Reasons for having cooperating processes:

❑ Information sharing
❑ Computation speedup (multiple processes running in parallel- subtasks
divided into processes)
❑ Modularity (system design- several modules/process need comm.)
❑ Convenience (multitasking-multiprogramming make user life easy)

❑ Cooperating processes need inter process communication (IPC)

Communications Models
❑ Two models of IPC (Inter process communication)
❑ Shared memory
❑ Message passing
Shared Memory Systems
❑ A region of memory that is shared
by cooperating processes.

❑ An area of memory shared among the

processes that wish to communicate

❑ The communication is under the

control of the users processes not the
operating system.

❑ Major issues is to provide mechanism

that will allow the user processes to
synchronize their actions when they
access shared memory.
Synchronization
❑ Cooperating processes that access shared data need to synchronize
their actions to ensure data consistency
❑ Maintaining data consistency requires mechanisms to ensure the
orderly execution of cooperating processes
❑ Illustration of the problem – The producer-Consumer problem
❑ Producer process produces information that is consumed by a Consumer
process.
❑ The information is passed from the Producer to the Consumer via a
buffer.
❑ Two types of buffers can be used:
❑ unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of the buffer
❑ bounded-buffer assumes that a fixed buffer size
Bounded-Buffer Solution
❑ Shared data
❑ #define BUFFER_SIZE 10
❑ typedef struct {
❑ . . .
❑ } item;

❑ item buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
❑ int in = 0;
❑ int out = 0;

❑ Solution presented in the next two slides is correct, but only 9 out of 10 buffer elements can be
used
Bounded-Buffer – Producer
item next_produced;
while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */
while (((in + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE) == out)
; /* do nothing */
buffer[in] = next_produced;
in = (in + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;
}
Bounded Buffer – Consumer
item next_consumed;

while (true) {
while (in == out)

; /* do nothing */
next_consumed = buffer[out];

out = (out + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;

/* consume the item in next consumed */

}
Message Passing Systems
❑ Mechanism for processes to communicate and to synchronize
their actions (messages are exchanged between processes)
❑ Without resorting to shared variables

❑ IPC facility provides two operations:

❑ Send (message)
❑ Receive (message)

❑ The message size is either fixed or variable

Message Passing (cont’d)

❑ If processes P and Q wish to communicate, they need to:

❑ Establish a communication link between them
❑ Exchange messages via send/receive

❑ Implementation issues:
❑ How are links established?
❑ Can a link be associated with more than two processes?
❑ How many links can there be between every pair of communicating
processes?
❑ What is the capacity of a link?
❑ Is the size of a message that the link can accommodate fixed or variable?
❑ Is a link unidirectional or bi-directional?
Implementation of Communication Link

 Physical:
 Shared memory
 Hardware bus
 Network

 Logical:
 Direct or indirect
 Synchronous or asynchronous
 Automatic or explicit buffering
Direct Communication
❑ Processes must name each other explicitly:
❑ Send (P, message) – send a message to process P
❑ Receive (Q, message) – receive a message from process Q

❑ Properties of communication link

❑ Links are established automatically
❑ A link is associated with exactly one pair of communicating
processes
❑ Between each pair there exists exactly one link
❑ The link may be unidirectional, but is usually bi-directional
Indirect Communication
❑ Messages are directed and received from mailboxes (also referred to
as ports)
❑ Each mailbox has a unique id
❑ Processes can communicate only if they share a mailbox

❑ Operations
❑ create a new mailbox (port)
❑ send and receive messages through mailbox
❑ delete a mailbox

❑ Primitives are defined as:

❑ Send (A, message) – send a message to mailbox A
❑ Receive (A, message) – receive a message from mailbox A
Indirect Communication (cont’d)

❑ Properties of communication link

❑ Link established only if processes share a common mailbox
❑ A link may be associated with many processes
❑ Each pair of processes may share several communication links
❑ Link may be unidirectional or bi-directional
Indirect Communication Issues
❑ Mailbox sharing
❑ P1, P2, and P3 share mailbox A
❑ P1, sends; P2 and P3 receive
❑ Who gets the message?

❑ Solutions
❑ Allow a link to be associated with at most two processes
❑ Allow only one process at a time to execute a receive operation
❑ Allow the system to select arbitrarily the receiver. Sender is
notified who the receiver was. (Algorithm like RR)
Blocking and Non-blocking schemes
❑ Message passing may be either blocking or non-blocking
❑ Blocking is considered synchronous
❑ Blocking send -- the sender is blocked until the message is received
❑ Blocking receive -- the receiver is blocked until a message is available

❑ Non-blocking is considered asynchronous

❑ Non-blocking send -- the sender sends the message and continue
❑ Non-blocking receive -- the receiver receives:
❑ A valid message, or
❑ Null message

❑ Different combinations possible

❑ If both send and receive are blocking, we have a rendezvous
Buffering
❑ Whether communication is direct or indirect, messages
exchanged by communicating processes reside in a temporary
queue.

❑ Such queues can be implemented in three ways:

❑ Zero capacity – no messages are queued on a link. Sender must
wait for receiver (rendezvous)
❑ Bounded capacity – finite length of n messages; Sender must
wait if link full
❑ Unbounded capacity – infinite length; Sender never waits
Example of IPC Systems
❑ There are four different IPC systems.
❑ POSIX API for shared memory
❑ Mach operating system, which uses message passing
❑ Windows IPC, which uses shared memory as a mechanism for
providing certain types of message passing.
❑ Pipes, one of the earliest IPC mechanisms on UNIX systems.
Mach
❑ Mach communication is message based
❑ Even system calls are messages
❑ Each task gets two mailboxes at creation- Kernel and Notify
❑ Only three system calls needed for message transfer
❑ msg_send(), msg_receive(), msg_rpc()
❑ Mailboxes needed for commuication, created via
❑ port_allocate()
❑ Send and receive are flexible, for example four options if mailbox full:
❑ Wait indefinitely
❑ Wait at most n milliseconds
❑ Return immediately
❑ Temporarily cache a message
Windows
❑ Message-passing centric via advanced local procedure call (LPC)
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 (an abstract reference to a resource) to the
subsystem’s connection port object.
❑ The client sends a connection request.
❑ The server creates a private communication port and returns the handle
to the client.
❑ The client and server use the corresponding port handle to send messages
or callbacks and to listen for replies.
Local Procedure Calls in Windows
Communications in Client-Server Systems

❑ Sockets

❑ Remote Procedure Calls

❑ Remote Method Invocation (Java)

Books
❑ Operating Systems Concept
❑ Written by Galvin and Silberschatz
❑ Edition: 9th
References
❑ Operating Systems Concept
❑ Written by Galvin and Silberschatz
❑ Edition: 9th