Processes in Unix

  1. Identified bu a unique integer, known as the process identifier or PID
  2. Created by the fork system call
  3. New process is the copy of the address space of the original process to allow easy communication of the parent process with its child
  4. Both processes continue execution at the instruction after the fork
  5. Return code for the fork is
    1. Zero for the child process
    2. process id of the child for the parent process
  6. Use execve system call after fork to replace the child process's memory space with a new program (binary file)