api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: yaml
dataset:
  id: 2878
  slug: process-management
  title: Process Management
  description: Core concepts of process and thread management.
  summary: "The vocabulary of process and thread management: processes, threads, control blocks, context switches, fork and exec, and the zombie and orphan states, plus process states, inter-process communication primitives and daemons."
  use_when:
    - You need the precise meaning of a process term for debugging or teaching.
    - You are choosing between threads, processes and IPC mechanisms.
  caveats:
    - Linux, Windows and macOS implement these ideas differently; fork and exec are the Unix model, while Windows creates processes with a single call.
    - Zombie processes are already dead; they cannot be killed, only reaped by their parent.
  related:
    - cpu-scheduling-algorithms
    - deadlock-handling
    - process-management-commands
  entry_count: 16
  fields:
    - section: data
      field: term
      type: string
      example: Process
    - section: data
      field: description
      type: string
      example: An instance of a program in execution with its …
  category: Operating Systems
  category_slug: operating-systems
  tags: os,process,thread,scheduler
  view_count: 47
  created_at: 1793403093
  updated_at: 1793403093
data:
  - term: Process
    description: An instance of a program in execution with its own address space.
  - term: Thread
    description: A single flow of control within a process sharing its resources.
  - term: Process Control Block
    description: Data structure storing process state, registers, and scheduling info.
  - term: Context Switch
    description: Saving and restoring CPU state when switching between processes.
  - term: Fork
    description: System call creating a child process as a copy of the parent.
  - term: Exec
    description: System call replacing the current process image with a new program.
  - term: Zombie Process
    description: A terminated process whose exit status has not been collected.
  - term: Orphan Process
    description: A process whose parent has terminated before it.
  - term: Process States
    description: "The lifecycle states of a process: new, ready, running, waiting (blocked) and terminated."
  - term: Inter-Process Communication
    description: Mechanisms for processes to exchange data, such as pipes, sockets, shared memory and message queues.
  - term: Pipe
    description: A one-way byte channel between processes, the basis of shell command chains.
  - term: Signal
    description: An asynchronous notification delivered to a process, such as SIGTERM to ask it to exit.
  - term: Semaphore
    description: A counter used to control access to a shared resource by multiple processes or threads.
  - term: Mutex
    description: A lock that allows one thread at a time to hold it, used to protect critical sections.
  - term: Daemon
    description: A long-running background process, usually started at boot and detached from a terminal.
  - term: Scheduler
    description: The kernel component that decides which ready process or thread runs next.