Bilkent University

Department of Computer Engineering

CS342 Operating Systems

Lecture 3
Processes

(chapter 3)
Dr. İbrahim Körpeoğlu
http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~korpe

CS342 Operating Systems 1 İbrahim Körpeoğlu, Bilkent University

 References

• The slides here are adapted/modified from the textbook and its slides:
Operating System Concepts, Silberschatz et al., 7th & 8th editions,
Wiley.

REFERENCES
• Operating System Concepts, 7th and 8th editions, Silberschatz et al.
Wiley.
• Modern Operating Systems, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, 3rd edition, 2009.

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 Outline

• Process Concept
• Process Scheduling
• Operations on Processes
• Interprocess Communication
• Examples of IPC Systems
• Communication in Client-Server Systems

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 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 describe communication in client-server systems

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 Process Concept

• An operating system executes a variety of programs:

– Batch system – jobs
– Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
• We will use the terms job and process almost interchangeably

• Process – a program in execution; process execution must progress in

sequential fashion
• A process includes:
– text – code – section (program counter – PC)
– stack section (stack pointer)
– data section

– set of open files currently used

– set of I/O devices currently used

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 Process in Memory

Stack segment
(holds the called function parameters,
local variables)

Storage for dynamically allocated

variables

Data segment
(includes global
variables, arrays, etc., you use)

Text segment
(code segment)
A process needs this to
(instructions are here)
be in memory
(address space; memory image)

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 Process: program in execution

CPU
registers

(Physical)
(Physical)
PSW Main
Main
PC Memory
Memory
(RAM)
(RAM)
IR

CPU state
of the process
(CPU context) process address space

(currently used portion of the address space

must be in memory)

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 Process: program in execution

• If we have a single program running in the system, then the task of OS

is easy:
– load the program, start it and program runs in CPU
– (from time to time it calls OS to get some service done)

• But if we want to start several processes, then the running program in

CPU (current process) has to be stopped for a while and other
program (process) has to run in CPU.

• To do this switch, we have to save the state/context (register values)

of the CPU which belongs to the stopped program, so that later the
stopped program can be re-started again as if nothing has happened.

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 Multiple Processes
one program counter

Process processes
Three program counters
A

Process C
B Process
Process Process B
A C
B
Process A
C
time
Conceptual model
what is of three different one process
happening processes executing at
physically a time

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 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

In a single-CPU system, only one process may be in running state; many

processes may be in ready and waiting states.

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 Diagram of Process State

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 Process Control Block

Information associated with each process

• Process state (ready, running, waiting, etc)
• Program counter (PC)
• CPU registers
• CPU scheduling information
– Priority of the process, etc.
• Memory-management information
– text/data/stack section pointers, sizes, etc.
– pointer to page table, etc.
• Accounting information
– CPU usage, clock time so far, …
• I/O status information
– List of I/O devices allocated to the process, a list of open files, etc.

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 Process Control Block (PCB)

Process management
Memory management
Registers
Pointer to text segment info
Program Counter (PC)
Pointer to data segment info
Program status word (PSW)
Pointer to stack segment info
Stack pointer
Process state
File management
Priority
Root directory
Scheduling parameters
Working directory
Process ID
File descriptors
Parent Process
User ID
Time when process started
Group ID
CPU time used
Children’s CPU time ……more

a PCB of a process may contain this information

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 PCBs

Process 1 Process 2 Process 3 Process N

address space
stack stack stack stack

process
data data data data
text text text text

PCB PCB PCB PCB

1 2 3 N
Kernel Memory

Kernel mains a PCB for each process. They can be linked together in various queues.
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 Process Representation in Linux

In Linux kernel source tree, the file include/linux/sched.h contains

the definition of the structure task_struct, which is the PCB for a process.

struct task_struct {
long state; /* state of the process */
….
pid_t pid; /* identifier of the process */
…
unisgned int time_slice; /* scheduling info */
…
struct files_struct *files; /* info about open files */
….
struct mm_struct *mm; /* info about the address space of this process */
…
}

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 CPU Switch from Process to Process

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 Process Scheduling Queues

• 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

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 Ready Queue And Various I/O Device
Queues

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 Schedulers

• Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects which processes

should be brought into the ready queue
• Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects which process
should be executed next and allocates CPU

Short-term
scheduler
CPU
ready queue

Long-term Main Memory

scheduler

job queue
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 Addition of Medium Term Scheduling

Medium term Medium term

scheduler scheduler
Short term
Scheduler
(CPU Scheduler)

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 Representation of Process Scheduling

CPU Scheduler

ready queue

I/O queue

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 Schedulers (Cont)

• Short-term scheduler is invoked very frequently (milliseconds)  (must

be fast)
• Long-term scheduler is invoked very infrequently (seconds, minutes)
 (may be slow)
• The long-term scheduler controls the degree of multiprogramming

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 Process Behaviour

• 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

• CPU burst: the execution of the program in CPU between two

I/O requests (i.e. time period during which the process wants to

continuously run in the CPU without making I/O)

– We may have a short or long CPU burst.

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 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
• Time dependent on hardware support

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 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 alternatives: Process

– Parent and children share all resources

– Children share subset of parent’s resources
Process Process
– Parent and child share no resources
• Execution alternatives:
– Parent and children execute concurrently
– Parent waits until children terminate Process Process Process

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 Process Creation (Cont)

• Child’s address space?

Parent Child
1)
Child has a new address space. AS AS
Child’s address space can contain:
– 1) the copy of the parent (at creation)
– 2) has a new program loaded into it
Parent Child
2)
AS AS

• 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

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 C Program Forking Separate Process
int main()
{ Parent
pid_t n; // return value of fork; it is process pid=x
n=?
ID
/* fork another process */
before fork() executed
n = fork();
if (n < 0) { /* error occurred */
fprintf(stderr, "Fork Failed");
exit(-1); Parent Child pid=y
} pid=x
n=y n=0
else if (n == 0) { /* child process */
execlp("/bin/ls", "ls", NULL);
after fork() executed
}
else { /* parent process */
/* parent will wait for the child
to complete */
wait (NULL); Parent
pid=x n=y Child pid=y
printf ("Child Complete");
exit(0);
} after execlp() executed
}
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 Execution Trace: fork()

Process-Parent Process-Child
stack n y stack n 0
PC
data data
…. ….
text n=fork(); text n=fork();
If (n == 0) If (n == 0)
.. ..
else if (n>0) else if (n>0)
CPU ... ...

PC PC
x pid y pid
PCB-Parent PCB-Child
sys_fork()
Kernel {….}
RAM
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 Execution Trace: fork() with execlp()

Process-Parent Process-Child
stack n y stack n 0
PC
data data
…. ….
text n=fork(); text n=fork();
If (n == 0) If (n == 0)
new code
…exec() …exec()
else if (n>0) else if (n>0)
CPU ... ...

PC PC
x pid y pid
PCB-Parent PCB-Child
sys_fork() sys_execve()
Kernel {….} {….}
RAM
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 Family of exec() Functions in Unix
Program A Program B
… …
Your Programs execlp(…); execv(…); …..
… …

user
execl(...) execlp(...) execle(...) execv(...) execvp(...) execve(...) mode
C Library {…} {…} {…} {…} {…} {…}

sys_execve(…)
{ kernel
Kernel … mode
}

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 Process Creation

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 A tree of processes on a typical Solaris

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 Process Termination

• Process executes last statement and asks the operating system to

delete it (can use exit system call)
– Output data from child to parent (via wait)
– Process’ resources are deallocated by operating system

• Parent may terminate execution of children processes (abort)

– Child has exceeded allocated resources
– Task assigned to child is no longer required
– If parent is exiting
• Some operating systems do not allow child to continue if its
parent terminates
– All children terminated - cascading termination

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 Process Termination

Parent Child

fork();
….
….
….
….
….
x = wait ();
exit (code);

PCB of parent PCB of child

sys_wait() sys_exit(..)
{ {
…return(..) …
Kernel } }

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 Cooperating Processes

• Processes within a system may be independent or cooperating

• 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
Application
• Reasons for process cooperation
– Information sharing
– Computation speed-up Process Process Process
– Modularity (application will
be divided into modules/sub-tasks)
– Convenience (may be better to cooperating process
work with multiple processes)
The overall application is designed
to consist of cooperating processes

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 IPC Mechanisms

• Cooperating processes require a facility/mechanism for interprocess

communication (IPC)

• There are two basic mechanism provided by most systems:

1) Shared Memory

2) Message Passing

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 Shared Memory IPC Mechanism

• A region of shared memory is

established between (among) two or
more processes.
Process A
• Establishment of that shared region is
done via the help of the operating shared region
system kernel.

• Then, processes can read and write Process B

shared memory region (segment)
directly as ordinary memory access
(like they are accessing memory
variables directly without kernel help)
– During this time, kernel is not
involved.
– Hence it is fast Kernel

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 Shared Memory IPC Mechanism

• To illustrate use of the shared memory IPC mechanism, a general

model problem, called producer-consumer problem, can be used.

• Producer-consumer problem: we have a producer, a consumer, and

data is sent from producer to consumer.
– unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of the buffer
– bounded-buffer assumes that there is a fixed buffer size

Buffer
Producer Produced Items Consumer
Process Process

We can solve this problem via shared memory IPC mechanism

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 Bounded-Buffer – Shared-Memory
Solution
• Shared data
#define BUFFER_SIZE 10
typedef struct {
...
} item;

item buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
int in = 0; // next free position
int out = 0; // first full position

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

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 Buffer State in Shared Memory

item buffer[BUFFER_SIZE]

Producer Consumer

int out;
int in;

Shared Memory

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 Buffer State in Shared Memory

Buffer Full

in out
((in+1) % BUFFER_SIZE == out) : considered full buffer

Buffer Empty

in out

In == out : empty buffer

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 Bounded-Buffer – Producer and Consumer
Code
while (true) {
Producer
/* Produce an item */
while ( ((in + 1) % BUFFER SIZE) == out)
; /* do nothing -- no free buffers */
buffer[in] = item;
in = (in + 1) % BUFFER SIZE;
}
Consumer
while (true) {
while (in == out)
item buffer[BUFFER_SIZE]; ; // do nothing -- nothing to consume
int in = 0;
int out = 0; // remove an item from the buffer
item = buffer[out];
Shared Memory out = (out + 1) % BUFFER SIZE;
return item;
}

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 Message Passing IPC Mechanism

• Another mechanism for processes to communicate and to synchronize

their actions
• Message system – processes communicate with each other without
resorting to shared variables
• This IPC facility provides two operations:
messages
– send(message) – message size fixed or variable
Passed
– receive(message) through

• If P and Q wish to communicate, they need to: P Q

– establish a (logical) communication link
between them Logical
Communication
– exchange messages via send/receive
Link

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 Message Passing

M
Process A

M
Process B

M
Kernel

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 Communication Models

message passing approach shared memory approach

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 Implementation Questions

• 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?

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 Issues to Consider

• Naming
– Direct
– Indirect

• Synchronization
– Blocking send/receive
– Non-blocking send/receive

• Buffering
– Zero capacity
– Bounded capacity
– Unbounded capacity

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 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 (i.e. implicitly by the kernel)
– 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

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 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

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 Indirect Communication

• Operations
– create a new mailbox
– 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

Process Process

send() receive()
Mailbox
{.. {…
{ }
Kernel
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 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.

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 Synchronization

• Message passing may be either blocking or non-blocking

• Blocking is considered synchronous
– Blocking send has the sender block until the message is received
– Blocking receive has the receiver block until a message is
available
• Non-blocking is considered asynchronous
– Non-blocking send has the sender send the message and
continue
– Non-blocking receive has the receiver receive a valid message or
null

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 Buffering

• 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

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 Examples of IPC Systems –Unix/Linux
Shared Memory
• There are two different API that provide functions for shared memory I
in Unix/Linux operating system

– 1) System V API
• System V is one of the earlier Unix versions that introduced shared
memory
– 2) POSIX API
• POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) is the standard API for
Unix like systems.

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 Examples of IPC Systems –
Unix System V Shared Memory
• System V Shared Memory
– Process first creates shared memory segment
segment id = shmget(IPC PRIVATE, size, S IRUSR | S
IWUSR);
– Process wanting access to that shared memory must attach to it
shared memory = (char *) shmat(id, NULL, 0);
– Now the process could write to the shared memory
sprintf(shared memory, "Writing to shared memory");
– When done a process can detach the shared memory from its
address space
shmdt(shared memory);

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 Examples of IPC Systems –
Unix POSIX Shared Memory
• The following functions are defined to create and manage shared
memory in POSIX API
• shm_open():
– create or open a shared memory region/segment (also
called shared memory object)
• shm_unlink():
– remove the shared memory object
• ftruncate():
– set the size of shared memory region
• mmap():
– map the shared memory into the address space of the
process. With this a process gets a pointer to the shared
memory region and can use that pointer to access the
shared memory.

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 Examples of IPC 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()

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 Examples of IPC Systems – Windows XP

• Message-passing centric via 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 to the subsystem’s connection port
object
• The client sends a connection request
• The server creates two private communication ports and
returns the handle to one of them to the client
• The client and server use the corresponding port handle to
send messages or callbacks and to listen for replies

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 Local Procedure Calls in Windows XP

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 Communications in Client-Server Systems

• Sockets
• Remote Procedure Calls
• Remote Method Invocation (Java)

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 Sockets

• A socket is defined as an endpoint for communication

• Concatenation of IP address and port
• The socket 161.25.19.8:1625 refers to port 1625 on host 161.25.19.8
• Communication consists between a pair of sockets

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 Socket Communication

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 Remote Procedure Calls

• Remote procedure call (RPC) abstracts procedure calls between

processes on networked systems
• Stubs – client-side proxy for the actual procedure on the server
• The client-side stub locates the server and marshalls the parameters
• The server-side stub receives this message, unpacks the marshalled
parameters, and peforms the procedure on the server

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 Execution of RPC

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 Remote Method Invocation

• Remote Method Invocation (RMI) is a Java mechanism similar to

RPCs
• RMI allows a Java program on one machine to invoke a method on a
remote object

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 Marshalling Parameters

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 End of Lecture

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