The document summarizes key concepts related to processes in operating systems, including:
1) A process includes a program counter, stack, data section, heap, text, and address space.
2) Processes transition between states like running, ready, waiting, and terminated.
3) A process control block contains information for each process like state, scheduling info, and I/O status.
4) Schedulers select which process runs on the CPU and move processes between queues like ready and device queues.
2. Chapter 3: Processes
s Process Concept
s Process Scheduling
s Operations on Processes
s Cooperating Processes
s Interprocess Communication
s Communication in Client-Server Systems
Operating System Concepts 3.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
3. Process Concept
s An operating system executes a variety of programs:
q Batch system – jobs
q Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
s Textbook uses the terms job and process almost interchangeably
s Process – a program in execution; process execution must progress in
sequential fashion
s A process includes:
q program counter which represents current activity
q Stack which holds temporary data such as function parameters,
local variables and return addresses.
q data section which contains global variables
q Heap which contains memory that is dynamically allocated during
process runtime.
q Text includes the application's code, might be shared by a number of
processes?
q The process's address space.
Operating System Concepts 3.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
5. Process State
s As a process executes, it changes state
q new: The process is being created
q running: Instructions are being executed
q waiting: The process is waiting for some event to occur
q ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a
processor
q terminated: The process has finished execution
Operating System Concepts 3.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
6. Diagram of Process State
Operating System Concepts 3.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
7. Process Control Block (PCB)
Information associated with each process
s Process state
s Program counter indicates the address of next instruction.
s CPU registers
s CPU scheduling information includes process priority and pointers
to scheduling queues.
s Memory-management information includes value of limit and base
registers
s Accounting information includes amount of CPU time used, time
limits etc.
s I/O status information includes the list of I/O devices allocated to
processes, list of open files
Operating System Concepts 3.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
8. Process Control Block (PCB)
Operating System Concepts 3.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
9. OS Data PCB Process
Structures Address
Space
RAM CPU
Kernel User
PSW
State text
IR
Memory .
Files
Accounting PC
Priority data
User SP
CPU register
storage heap General
Purpose
Registers
stack
9
Operating System Concepts 3.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
10. CPU Switch From Process to
Process
Operating System Concepts 3.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
11. Process Scheduling Queues
s Job queue – set of all processes in the system
s Ready queue
q set of all processes residing in main memory, ready and
waiting to execute.
q It is stored as a linked list. It contains pointers to the first
and final PCB’s.
q Each PCB includes a pointer field that points to the next
PCB in the ready queue.
s Device queues – set of processes waiting for an I/O device
s Processes migrate among the various queues
Operating System Concepts 3.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
14. Schedulers
s Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects
which processes should be brought into the ready queue
s Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects
which process should be executed next and allocates
CPU
s Medium term Scheduler (Swaper)
Operating System Concepts 3.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
15. Addition of Medium Term Scheduling
Operating System Concepts 3.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
16. Schedulers (Cont.)
s Short-term scheduler is invoked very frequently (milliseconds) ⇒
(must be fast)
s Long-term scheduler is invoked very infrequently (seconds, minutes)
⇒ (may be slow)
s The long-term scheduler controls the degree of multiprogramming
s Processes can be described as either:
q I/O-bound process – spends more time doing I/O than
computations, many short CPU bursts
q CPU-bound process – spends more time doing computations;
few very long CPU bursts
s If all processes are I/O bound,
q The ready queue will almost always be empty
s If all processes are CPU bound,
q The I/O waiting queue will almost always be empty, devices will
go unused
q System will again be unbalanced
Operating System Concepts 3.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
17. Context Switch
s 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
s Context-switch time is overhead; the system does
no useful work while switching
s Time dependent on hardware support
s Part of OS responsible for switching the processor
among the processes is called Dispatcher
Operating System Concepts 3.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
18. Two-state process model
Processor
Queue
Enter Dispatch Exit
Pause
Dispatcher is now redefined:
• Moves processes to the waiting queue
• Remove completed/aborted processes
• Select the next process to run
18
Operating System Concepts 3.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
19. How process state changes1
Ready Ready Ready
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b := a + 1 read a file b := a + 1
c := b + 1 b := a + 1 c := b + 1
read a file c := b + 1 a := b - c
a := b - c a := b - c c := c * b
c := c * b c := c * b b := 0
b := 0 b := 0 c := 0
19
Operating System Concepts 3.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
20. How process state changes2
Running Ready Ready
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b a aa 1 1
:=:=:= 1
+ read a file b := a + 1
b := a + 1
c :=bb:= a + 1
+1 b := a + 1 c := b + 1
c :=abfile1
+
read := b + 1 c := b + 1 a := b - c
c a file
a read - ca file
:= b a := b - c c := c * b
a readb c
:= * -
b
c :=ac:= b - c Timeout
c := c * b b := 0
b c c0 c c b b
:=:=:= * * b := 0 c := 0
b := 0
b := 0
20
Operating System Concepts 3.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
21. How process state changes3
Ready Running Ready
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b := a + 1 read a1file
a := b := a + 1
c := b + 1 read + 1
b := a a file c := b + 1
read a file c b := a + 1
:= b + 1 a := b - c
a := b - c a := b - +
c := b c 1 c := c * b
c := c * b I/O
c a := * b c
:= c b - b := 0
b := 0 b c := c * b
:= 0 c := 0
b := 0
21
Operating System Concepts 3.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
22. How process state changes4
Ready Blocked Running
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b := a + 1 read a file ba :=a:= 1
:=a 1 1
+
c := b + 1 b := a + 1 b := a + 1
c :=bb:= a + 1
+1
read a file c := b + 1 c := b c 1
+
a := b - b + 1
c := - c
a := b - c a := b - c c a ac:= b - c
:=:= * b
b
c := c * b Timeout
c := c * b b c c0 c c b b
:=:=:= * *
b := 0 b := 0 c b b0:= 0
:=:= 0
c := 0
c := 0
22
Operating System Concepts 3.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
23. How process state changes5
Running Blocked Ready
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b := a + 1 read a file b := a + 1
c := b + 1 b := a + 1 c := b + 1
read a file c := b + 1 a := b - c
a := b - c a := b - c c := c * b
c := c * b I/O
c := c * b b := 0
b := 0 b := 0 c := 0
23
Operating System Concepts 3.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
24. How process state changes6
Blocked Blocked Running
The Next Process to Run
cannot be simply selected
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b := a + 1 read a file from the front1
b := a +
c := b + 1 b := a + 1 c := b + 1
read a file c := b + 1 a := b - c
a := b - c a := b - c c := c * b
c := c * b c := c * b b := 0
b := 0 b := 0 c := 0
24
Operating System Concepts 3.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
25. How process state changes7
Blocked Blocked Running
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b := a + 1 read a file b a := 1 1
:= a +
c := b + 1 b := a + 1 b := a + 1
c := b + 1
read a file c := b + 1 a c := b c 1
:= b - +
a := b - c a := b - c c a := * b c
:= c b -
c :=Suppose the Green process finishesbI/O0 c * b
c*b c := c * b c :=
:=
b := 0 b := 0 b := 0
c := 0
c := 0
25
Operating System Concepts 3.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
26. How process state changes8
Blocked Ready Running
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b := a + 1 read a file b a aa:= 1
:=:= 1 1
+
c := b + 1 b := a + 1 b := a + 1
c :=bb:= a + 1
+1
read a file c := b + 1 c := b c 1
- +
a :=cb:= b + 1
a := b - c a := b - c c a ac:= b c c
:=:= * b -
b-
c := c * b Timeout
c := c * b c := c * b
b :=c0 c * b
:=
b := 0 b := 0 c b b0:= 0
:=:= 0
:= 0
c
c := 0
26
Operating System Concepts 3.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
27. How process state changes9
Blocked Running Ready
a := 1 a := 1 a := 1
b := a + 1 read a1file
a := b := a + 1
c := b + 1 read+ 1file
a :=a
b :=read 1 file
a a c := b + 1
read a file b := a + 1
c :=bb + a1 a := b - c
a := b - c c :=:= c + 1
b+1
a :=cb - b + c := c * b
c := c * b Timeout- c 1
:=
c a ac:= b - c
:=:= * b
b b := 0
:= c * b
b := 0 b c c0 c * b
:= c := 0
b :=:=
0
b := 0
27
Operating System Concepts 3.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
28. Process Creation
s Reasons to create a process
Submit a new batch job/Start program
User logs on to the system
OS creates on behalf of a user (printing)
Spawned by existing process
s Parent process create children processes, which, in turn create other
processes, forming a tree of processes
s Resource sharing
q Parent and children share all resources
q Children share subset of parent’s resources
q Parent and child share no resources
s Execution
q Parent and children execute concurrently
q Parent waits until children terminate
Operating System Concepts 3.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
29. Process Creation (Cont.)
s Address space
q Child duplicate of parent
q Child has a program loaded into it
s UNIX examples
q fork system call creates new process
q exec system call used after a fork to replace the
process’ memory space with a new program
Operating System Concepts 3.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
31. C Program Forking Separate
Process
int main()
{
Pid_t pid;
/* fork another process */
pid = fork();
if (pid < 0) { /* error occurred */
fprintf(stderr, "Fork Failed");
exit(-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");
exit(0);
}
}
Operating System Concepts 3.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
32. The fork() system call
At the end of the system call there is a new process
waiting to run once the scheduler chooses it
s A new data structure is allocated
s The new process is called the child process.
s The existing process is called the parent process.
s The parent gets the child’s pid returned to it.
s The child gets 0 returned to it.
s Both parent and child execute at the same point
after fork() returns
32
Operating System Concepts 3.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
33. Unix Process Control
The fork syscall
returns a zero to the
child and the child
process ID to the
int pid;
int status = 0; parent Parent uses wait to
if (pid = fork()) {
sleepFork creates an
until the
/* parent */ childexact copy of the
exits; wait
…… returns child pid
parent process
pid = wait(&status); and status.
} else {
/* child */ Wait variants
…… allow wait on a
exit(status); specific child, or
} Child process of
notification
passes statusother
stops and back
to parent on exit,
signals
to report
success/failure
33
Operating System Concepts 3.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
34. Process Termination
s Batch job issues Halt instruction
s User logs off
s Process executes a service request to terminate
s Parent terminates so child processes terminate
s Operating system intervention
q such as when deadlock occurs
s Error and fault conditions
q E.g. memory unavailable, protection error, arithmetic error, I/O
failure, invalid instruction
34
Operating System Concepts 3.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
35. Process Termination
s Process executes last statement and asks the operating system to
delete it (exit)
q Output data from child to parent (via wait)
q Process’ resources are deallocated by operating system
s Parent may terminate execution of children processes (abort)
q Child has exceeded allocated resources
q Task assigned to child is no longer required
q If parent is exiting
Some operating system do not allow child to continue if its
parent terminates
– All children terminated - cascading termination
Operating System Concepts 3.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
36. Inter process Communication
Processes executing concurrently in the operating
system may be either independent processes or
cooperating processes.
s Independent process cannot affect or be affected by
the execution of another process
s Cooperating process can affect or be affected by the
execution of another process
Operating System Concepts 3.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
37. Advantages of Process Cooperation
s Information sharing: Allow concurrent access to
same piece of information that several users may be
interested in it.
s Computation speed-up: break a task to subtasks,
each of which will be executing in parallel with the
others. (Should be multiple processing elements such
as CPUs)
s Modularity: divided the system functions into
separate processes or threads.
s Convenience: for user, user may work on many
tasks at the same time.
Operating System Concepts 3.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
38. MODELS OF IPC
Cooperating processes require an inter
process communication mechanism that
will allow them to exchange data and
information.
2. Shared Memory
3. Message Passing
Operating System Concepts 3.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
39. SHARED MEMORY
1. Region of memory that is shared by
cooperating processes is
established.
2. Processes can then exchange
information by reading and writing
data to shared region
Operating System Concepts 3.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
40. MESSAGE PASSING
Communication takes place by
means of messages exchanged
between the cooperating processes.
Operating System Concepts 3.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
42. Advantages & Disadvantages of Message
Passing & Shared Memory
1. Message passing is useful for exchanging
smaller amounts of data
2. Message Passing is easier to implement than
shared memory for IPC
3. Shared Memory allows maximum speed and
convenience as it can be done at memory
speeds within a computer
4. Shared memory is faster than message
passing as message passing is implemented
using system calls.
Operating System Concepts 3.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
43. Contd….
1. Message passing requires the more
time consuming task of kernel
intervention.
2. Shared memory system calls are
required only to establish shared
memory regions, no assistance from the
kernel is required.
Operating System Concepts 3.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
44. Producer-Consumer Problem
s Paradigm for cooperating processes, producer process
produces information that is consumed by a consumer
process
q A compiler may produce assembly code, which is consumed
by an assembler. The assembler, in turn, may produce object
modules, which are consumed by the loader
s A buffer of items that can be filled by the producer and emptied
by the consumer. should be available
s A producer can produce one item while the consumer is
consuming another item.
s The producer and consumer must be synchronized
q the consumer does not try to consume an item that has not
yet been produced.
q the consumer must wait until an item is produced
Operating System Concepts 3.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
45. Producer-Consumer Problem
s unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of the
buffer
q the consumer may have to wait for new items, but
q the producer can always produce new items
s bounded-buffer assumes that there is a fixed buffer size
q the consumer must wait if the buffer is empty, and
q the producer must wait if the buffer is full.
Operating System Concepts 3.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
46. Bounded-Buffer – Shared-Memory
Solution
s Shared data
#define BUFFER_SIZE 10
Typedef struct {
...
} item;
item buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
int in = 0; % in: the next free position in the buffer
int out = 0; % out: the first full position in the buffer
s The buffer is empty when in == out ;
s The buffer is full when ((in + 1) % BUFFERSIZE) == out
s Solution is correct, but can only use BUFFER_SIZE-1 elements
Operating System Concepts 3.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
47. Bounded-Buffer – Insert() Method
The producer process has a local variable nextproduced in which
the new item to be produced is stored:
while (true) {
/* Produce an item */
while (((in = (in + 1) % BUFFER SIZE
count) == out)
; /* do nothing -- no free
buffers */
buffer[in] = item;
in = (in + 1) % BUFFER SIZE;
{
Operating System Concepts 3.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
48. Bounded Buffer – Remove() Method
The consumer process has a local variable nextconsumed in which the
item to be consumed is stored:
while (true) {
while (in == out)
; // do nothing -- nothing
to consume
// remove an item from the buffer
item = buffer[out];
out = (out + 1) % BUFFER SIZE;
return item;
{
Operating System Concepts 3.48 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
49. Message Passing
s Mechanism for processes to communicate and to synchronize their
actions
s Message system – processes communicate with each other without
resorting to shared variables
s IPC facility provides two operations:
q send(message) – message size fixed or variable
q receive(message)
s If P and Q wish to communicate, they need to:
q establish a communication link between them
q exchange messages via send/receive
s Implementation of communication link
q physical (e.g., shared memory, hardware bus)
q logical (e.g., logical properties) e.g. send(), receive()
Operating System Concepts 3.49 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
50. Implementation Questions
s How are links established?
s Can a link be associated with more than two processes?
s How many links can there be between every pair of communicating
processes?
s What is the capacity of a link?
s Is the size of a message that the link can accommodate fixed or
variable?
s Is a link unidirectional or bi-directional?
Operating System Concepts 3.50 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
51. Methods for logical implementation of link
1. Direct or Indirect Communication
2. Synchronous and Asynchronous
Communication
3. Automatic or explicit Buffering
Operating System Concepts 3.51 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
52. Direct Communication
s Processes must name each other explicitly:
q send (P, message) – send a message to process P
q receive(Q, message) – receive a message from process Q
s Properties of communication link
q Links are established automatically because the processes
need to know only the identities to communicate.
q A link is associated with exactly one pair of communicating
processes
q Between each pair there exists exactly one link
q The link may be unidirectional, but is usually bi-directional
Operating System Concepts 3.52 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
53. Indirect Communication
s Messages are directed and received from mailboxes (also
referred to as ports)
q Each mailbox has a unique id
q Processes can communicate only if they share a mailbox
s Properties of communication link
q Link established only if processes share a common mailbox
q A link may be associated with many processes
q Each pair of processes may share several communication
links
q Link may be unidirectional or bi-directional
Operating System Concepts 3.53 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
54. Indirect Communication
s Operations
q create a new mailbox
q send and receive messages through mailbox
q destroy a mailbox
s Primitives are defined as:
send(A, message) – send a message to mailbox A
receive(A, message) – receive a message from mailbox A
Operating System Concepts 3.54 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
55. Indirect Communication
s Mailbox sharing
q P1, P2, and P3 share mailbox A
q P1, sends; P2 and P3 receive
q Who gets the message?
s Solutions
q Allow a link to be associated with at most two processes
q Allow only one process at a time to execute a receive operation
q Allow the system to select arbitrarily the receiver. Sender is
notified who the receiver was.
Operating System Concepts 3.55 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
56. Indirect Communication
s If the mailbox is owned by a process (that is, the mailbox is
part of the address space of the process),
q then we distinguish between the owner (who can only receive
messages through this mailbox) and the user (who can only
send messages to the mailbox).
q Since each mailbox has a unique owner, there can be
no confusion about who should receive a message sent to
this mailbox.
q When a process that owns a mailbox terminates, the mailbox
disappears.
q Any process that subsequently sends a message to this
mailbox must be notified that the mailbox no longer exists.
Operating System Concepts 3.56 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
57. Indirect Communication
s If a mailbox owned by the operating system is
independent and is not attached to any particular
process:
q The operating system then must provide a mechanism
that allows a process to do the following:
Create a new mailbox.
Send and receive messages through the mailbox.
Delete a mailbox
q Note: the
ownership and receive privilege
may be passed to other processes
through appropriate system calls.
Operating System Concepts 3.57 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
58. Synchronization
s Message passing may be either blocking or non-blocking
s Blocking is considered synchronous
q Blocking send has the sender block until the message is
received
q Blocking receive has the receiver block until a message is
available
s Non-blocking is considered asynchronous
q Non-blocking send has the sender send the message and
continue
q Non-blocking receive has the receiver receive a valid
message or null
Operating System Concepts 3.58 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
59. Buffering
s Queue of messages attached to the link; implemented
in one of three ways
1. Zero capacity – 0 messages
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
Operating System Concepts 3.59 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
60. Client-Server Communication
s Sockets
s Remote Procedure Calls
s Remote Method Invocation (Java)
Operating System Concepts 3.60 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
61. Sockets
s A socket is defined as an endpoint for communication
s Concatenation of IP address and port
s The socket 161.25.19.8:1625 refers to port 1625 on host
161.25.19.8
s Communication consists between a pair of sockets
Operating System Concepts 3.61 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
63. Remote Procedure Calls
s Remote procedure call (RPC) abstracts procedure calls between processes on
networked systems.
s Stubs – client-side proxy for the actual procedure on the server.
s The client-side stub locates the server and marshalls the parameters.
s The server-side stub receives this message, unpacks the marshalled
parameters, and performs the procedure on the server.
s A stub is a small program routine that substitutes for a longer program,
possibly to be loaded later or that is located remotely. For example, a program
that uses Remote Procedure Calls ( RPC ) is compiled with stubs that
substitute for the program that provides a requested procedure. The stub
accepts the request and then forwards it (through another program) to the
remote procedure. When that procedure has completed its service, it returns
the results or other status to the stub which passes it back to the program that
made the request.
Operating System Concepts 3.63 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne