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fork (system call) In computing, particularly in the context of the Unix operating system and its workalikes, fork is an operation whereby a process creates a copy of itself. It is an interface which is required for compliance with the POSIX and Single UNIX Specification standards. It is usually implemented as a C standard library wrapper to ...
Description. fork() is the name of the system call that the parent process uses to "divide" itself ("fork") into two identical processes. After calling fork(), the created child process is an exact copy of the parent except for the return value of the fork () call. This includes open files, register state, and all memory allocations, which ...
The word "fork" has been used to mean "to divide in branches, go separate ways" as early as the 14th century. [2] In the software environment, the word evokes the fork system call, which causes a running process to split itself into two (almost) identical copies that (typically) diverge to perform different tasks.
A child process in computing is a process created by another process (the parent process). This technique pertains to multitasking operating systems, and is sometimes called a subprocess or traditionally a subtask. There are two major procedures for creating a child process: the fork system call (preferred in Unix-like systems and the POSIX ...
System call. A high-level overview of the Linux kernel's system call interface, which handles communication between its various components and the userspace. In computing, a system call (commonly abbreviated to syscall) is the programmatic way in which a computer program requests a service from the operating system [a] on which it is executed.
Fork–join model. An illustration of the fork–join paradigm, in which three regions of the program permit parallel execution of the variously colored blocks. Sequential execution is displayed on the top, while its equivalent fork–join execution is on the bottom. In parallel computing, the fork–join model is a way of setting up and ...
It involves only memory operation (and by COW the memory opt is also minimized). It does not violate process separation and make the child-process have maximal flexibility to decide what next step to go. So fork () does one thing only and well and push as much policy as possible up to the user space.
Process identifier. In computing, the process identifier (a.k.a. process ID or PID) is a number used by most operating system kernels —such as those of Unix, macOS and Windows —to uniquely identify an active process. This number may be used as a parameter in various function calls, allowing processes to be manipulated, such as adjusting the ...