CHAPTER 2: PROCESSES AND

PROCESS MANAGEMENT
 CHAPTER 2: PROCESSES
Process Concept
Process Scheduling
Operations on Processes
Interprocess Communication
Examples of IPC Systems
Communication in Client-Server Systems
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
 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
 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
PROCESS IN MEMORY
 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
DIAGRAM OF PROCESS STATE
 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
CPU SWITCH FROM PROCESS TO
PROCESS
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
 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 scheduler selects among available
processes for next execution on CPU
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

 Queueing diagram represents queues, resources,

flows
SCHEDULERS
Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects which process
should be executed next and allocates 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
 ADDITION OF MEDIUM TERM
SCHEDULING
 Medium-term scheduler can be added if degree of
multiple programming needs to decrease
 Remove process from memory, store on disk,
bring back in from disk to continue execution:
swapping
MULTITASKING IN MOBILE
SYSTEMS
Some mobile systems (e.g., early version of iOS) allow
only one process to run, others suspended
Due to screen real estate, user interface limits iOS 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 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
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
A TREE OF PROCESSES IN LINUX
 PROCESS CREATION (CONT.)
Address space
 Child duplicate of parent
 Child has a program loaded into it

UNIX examples
 fork() system call creates new process
 exec() system call used after a fork() to replace the process’ memory space
with a new program
PROCESS TERMINATION
Process executes last statement and then asks the
operating system to delete it using the exit()
system call.
 Returns status data from child to parent (via wait())
 Process’ resources are deallocated by operating system

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
Some operating systems do not allow child 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 operating system.

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 a zombie
If parent terminated without invoking wait , process is an
orphan
 MULTIPROCESS ARCHITECTURE – CHROME
BROWSER

Many web browsers ran as single process (some still do)

 If one web site causes trouble, entire browser can hang or crash

Google Chrome Browser is multiprocess with 3 different

types of processes:
 Browser process manages user interface, disk and network I/O
 Renderer process renders web pages, deals with HTML, Javascript. A new
renderer created for each website opened
 Runs in sandbox restricting disk and network I/O, minimizing effect of security exploits
 Plug-in process for each type of plug-in
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 interprocess communication

(IPC)
Two models of IPC
 Shared memory
 Message passing
COMMUNICATIONS MODELS
(a) Message passing. (b) shared memory.
 COOPERATING PROCESSES
Independent process cannot affect or be affected
by the execution of another process
Cooperating process can affect or be affected by
the execution of another process
Advantages of process cooperation
 Information sharing
 Computation speed-up
 Modularity
 Convenience
PRODUCER-CONSUMER
PROBLEM
Paradigm for cooperating processes,
producer process produces information that
is consumed by a consumer process
 unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of the
buffer
 bounded-buffer assumes that there is a fixed buffer size
BOUNDED-BUFFER – SHARED-MEMORY
SOLUTION
Shared data
#define BUFFER_SIZE 10
typedef struct {
. . .
} item;

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

Solution is correct, but can only use BUFFER_SIZE-1 elements

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 */

}
INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION – SHARED
MEMORY

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 is discussed in great details in
Chapter 5.
 INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION – MESSAGE
PASSING

Mechanism for processes to communicate and to

synchronize their actions

Message system – processes communicate with each

other 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.)

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?
MESSAGE PASSING (CONT.)

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

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
Operations
 create a new mailbox (port)
 send and receive messages through mailbox
 destroy 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
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.
SYNCHRONIZATION
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
SYNCHRONIZATION (CONT.)
Producer-consumer becomes trivial

message next_produced;
while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */
send(next_produced);
}
message next_consumed;
while (true) {
receive(next_consumed);

/* consume the item in next consumed */

}
BUFFERING
Queue of messages attached to the link.
implemented in one of three ways
1. Zero capacity – no messages are queued on a link.
Sender must wait for receiver (rendezvous)
2. Bounded capacity – finite length of n messages
Sender must wait if link full
3. Unbounded capacity – infinite length
Sender never waits