Advanced Operating

System
Professor Mangal Sain
Lecture 2
Processes
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 explore interprocess communication using
shared memory and message passing
 To describe communication in client-server
systems
 Lecture 2 – Part 1

Processes concept and scheduling

PROCESS CONCEPT
 An operating system executes a variety of
programs:
 Batch system – jobs
 Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
 Process – a program in execution; process
execution must progress in sequential fashion
 Multiple parts
 The program code, also called text section
 Current activity including program counter,
processor registers
 Stack containing temporary data
 Function parameters, return addresses, local variables
 Data section containing global variables
 Heap containing memory dynamically allocated
during run time
PROCESS CONCEPT (CONT.)
 Program is passive entity stored on disk
(executable file), process is active
 Program becomes process when executable file
loaded into memory
 Execution of program started via GUI mouse
clicks, command line entry of its name, etc
 One program can be several processes
 Consider multiple users executing the same
program
PROCESS IN MEMORY
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
DIAGRAM OF PROCESS STATE
PROCESS CONTROL BLOCK (PCB)
Information associated with each process
(also called task control block)
 Process state – running, waiting, etc
 Program counter – location of instruction to
next execute
 CPU registers – contents of all process-
centric registers
 CPU scheduling information- priorities,
scheduling queue pointers
 Memory-management information – memory
allocated to the process
 Accounting information – CPU used, clock
time elapsed since start, time limits
 I/O status information – I/O devices
allocated to process, list of open files
THREADS

 So far, process has a single thread of execution

 Consider having multiple program counters per
process
 Multiple locations can execute at once
 Multiple threads of control -> threads
 Must then have storage for thread details,
multiple program counters in PCB
PROCESS SCHEDULING

 Maximize CPU use, quickly switch processes

onto CPU for time sharing
 Process scheduler selects among available
processes for next execution on CPU
 Maintains scheduling queues of processes
 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
READY QUEUE AND VARIOUS I/O DEVICE QUEUES
REPRESENTATION OF PROCESS SCHEDULING
Queueing diagram represents queues, resources, flows
SCHEDULERS
 Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects which process
should be executed next and allocates CPU
 Sometimes the only scheduler in a system
 Short-term scheduler is invoked frequently (milliseconds)  (must
be fast)
 Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects which processes
should be brought into the ready queue
 Long-term scheduler is invoked infrequently (seconds, minutes) 
(may be slow)
 The long-term scheduler controls the degree of
multiprogramming
 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
 Long-term scheduler strives for good process mix
ADDITION OF MEDIUM TERM SCHEDULING

Medium-term scheduler can be added if degree of multiple progr

amming needs to decrease
Remove process from memory, store on disk, bring back in fro
m disk to continue execution: swapping
MULTITASKING IN MOBILE SYSTEMS
 Some mobile systems (e.g., early version of iOS) allow only
one process to run, others suspended
 Due to screen real estate, user interface limits iOS provides
for a
 Single foreground process- controlled via user interface
 Multiple background processes– in memory, running, but not
on the display, and with limits
 Limits include single, short task, receiving notification of events,
specific long-running tasks like audio playback
 Android runs foreground and background, with fewer
limits
 Background process uses a service to perform tasks
 Service can keep running even if background process is
suspended
 Service has no user interface, small memory use
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
 The more complex the OS and the PCB ➔ the longer the
context switch
 Time dependent on hardware support
 Some hardware provides multiple sets of registers per CPU ➔
multiple contexts loaded at once
CPU SWITCH FROM PROCESS TO PROCESS
 Lecture 2 – Part 2

Operation on Processes
OPERATIONS ON PROCESSES

 System must provide mechanisms for:

 process creation,
 process termination,
 and so on as detailed next
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 options
 Parent and children share all resources
 Children share subset of parent’s resources
 Parent and child share no resources

 Execution options
 Parent and children execute concurrently
 Parent waits until children terminate
A TREE OF PROCESSES IN LINUX
init
pid = 1

login kthreadd sshd

pid = 8415 pid = 2 pid = 3028

bash khelper pdflush sshd

pid = 8416 pid = 6 pid = 200 pid = 3610

emacs tcsch
ps
pid = 9204 pid = 4005
pid = 9298
PROCESS CREATION (CONT.)
 Address space
 Child duplicate of parent
 Child has a program loaded into it

 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
PROCESS TERMINATION
 Process executes last statement and then asks the
operating system to delete it using the exit() system
call.
 Returns status data from child to parent (via wait())
 Process’ resources are deallocated by operating system
 Parent may terminate the execution of children
processes using the abort() system call. Some
reasons for doing so:
 Child has exceeded allocated resources
 Task assigned to child is no longer required
 The parent is exiting and the operating systems does not
allow a child to continue if its parent terminates
PROCESS TERMINATION
 Some operating systems do not allow child to exists if its
parent has terminated. If a process terminates, then all
its children must also be terminated.
 cascading termination. All children, grandchildren, etc. are
terminated.
 The termination is initiated by the operating system.
 The parent process may wait for termination of a child
process by using the wait()system call. The call returns
status information and the pid of the terminated process
pid = wait(&status);
 If no parent waiting (did not invoke wait()) process is a
zombie
 If parent terminated without invoking wait , process is
an orphan
MULTIPROCESS ARCHITECTURE – CHROME BROWSER
 Many web browsers ran as single process (some still do)
 If one web site causes trouble, entire browser can hang or crash
 Google Chrome Browser is multiprocess with 3 different types of
processes:
 Browser process manages user interface, disk and network I/O
 Renderer process renders web pages, deals with HTML, Javascript. A new
renderer created for each website opened
 Runs in sandbox restricting disk and network I/O, minimizing effect of security exploits
 Plug-in process for each type of plug-in
INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION
 Processes within a system may be independent or
cooperating
 Cooperating process can affect or be affected by other
processes, including sharing data
 Reasons for cooperating processes:
 Information sharing
 Computation speedup
 Modularity
 Convenience
 Cooperating processes need interprocess
communication (IPC)
 Two models of IPC
 Shared memory
 Message passing
COMMUNICATIONS MODELS

(a) Message passing. (b) shared memory.

 COOPERATING PROCESSES

 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
 Advantages of process cooperation
 Information sharing
 Computation speed-up
 Modularity
 Convenience
INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION – SHARED MEMORY
 An area of memory shared among the processes
that wish to communicate
 The communication is under the control of the
users processes not the operating system.
 Major issues is to provide mechanism that will
allow the user processes to synchronize their
actions when they access shared memory.
INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION – MESSAGE PASSING
 Mechanism for processes to communicate and to
synchronize their actions
 Message system – processes communicate with
each other without resorting to shared variables
 IPC facility provides two operations:
 send(message)
 receive(message)

 The message size is either fixed or variable

MESSAGE PASSING (CONT.)
 If processes P and Q wish to communicate, they need to:
 Establish a communication link between them
 Exchange messages via send/receive
 Implementation issues:
 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?
MESSAGE PASSING (CONT.)

 Implementation of communication link

 Physical:
 Shared memory

 Hardware bus

 Network

 Logical:
 Direct or indirect

 Synchronous or asynchronous

 Automatic or explicit buffering

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
 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
INDIRECT COMMUNICATION
 Messagesare 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
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.
INDIRECT COMMUNICATION

 Operations
 create a new mailbox (port)
 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
 Lecture 2 – Part 3

Operation on Processes
SYNCHRONIZATION
 Message passing may be either blocking or non-blocking
 Blocking is considered synchronous
 Blocking send -- the sender is blocked until the message is
received
 Blocking receive -- the receiver is blocked until a message is
available
 Non-blocking is considered asynchronous
 Non-blocking send -- the sender sends the message and
continue
 Non-blocking receive -- the receiver receives:
A valid message, or
Null message
Different combinations possible
If both send and receive are blocking, we have a rendezvous
SYNCHRONIZATION (CONT.)

Producer-consumer becomes trivial

message next_produced;
while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */
send(next_produced);
}

message next_consumed;
while (true) {
receive(next_consumed);

/* consume the item in next consumed */

}
BUFFERING

 Queue of messages attached to the link.

 implemented in one of three ways
1. Zero capacity – no messages are queued on a link.
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
 EXAMPLES OF IPC SYSTEMS – WINDOWS

 Message-passing centric via advanced 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.
LOCAL PROCEDURE CALLS IN WINDOWS
COMMUNICATIONS IN CLIENT-SERVER SYSTEMS

 Sockets
 Remote Procedure Calls

 Pipes

 Remote Method Invocation (Java)

SOCKETS
 A socket is defined as an endpoint for communication
 Concatenation of IP address and port – a number
included at start of message packet to differentiate
network services on a host
 The socket 161.25.19.8:1625 refers to port 1625 on
host 161.25.19.8
 Communication consists between a pair of sockets
 All ports below 1024 are well known, used for
standard services
 Special IP address 127.0.0.1 (loopback) to refer to
system on which process is running
SOCKET COMMUNICATION
SOCKETS IN JAVA

 Three types of
sockets
 Connection-
oriented (TCP)
 Connectionless
(UDP)
 MulticastSocket
class– data can be
sent to multiple
recipients

 Consider this “Date”

server:
REMOTE PROCEDURE CALLS

 Remote procedure call (RPC) abstracts procedure

calls between processes on networked systems
 Again uses ports for service differentiation
 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
performs the procedure on the server
 On Windows, stub code compile from specification
written in Microsoft Interface Definition
Language (MIDL)
REMOTE PROCEDURE CALLS (CONT.)

 Data representation handled via External

Data Representation (XDL) format to
account for different architectures
 Big-endian and little-endian
 Remote communication has more failure
scenarios than local
 Messages can be delivered exactly once rather
than at most once
EXECUTION OF RPC
PIPES
 Acts as a conduit allowing two processes to communicate
 Issues:
 Is communication unidirectional or bidirectional?
 In the case of two-way communication, is it half or full-duplex?
 Must there exist a relationship (i.e., parent-child) between
the communicating processes?
 Can the pipes be used over a network?

 Ordinary pipes – cannot be accessed from outside the

process that created it. Typically, a parent process
creates a pipe and uses it to communicate with a child
process that it created.
 Named pipes – can be accessed without a parent-child
relationship.
ORDINARY PIPES
Ordinary Pipes allow communication in standard producer-
consumer style
Producer writes to one end (the write-end of the pipe)
Consumer reads from the other end (the read-end of the
pipe)
Ordinary pipes are therefore unidirectional
Require parent-child relationship between communicating
processes

Windows calls these anonymous pipes

See Unix and Windows code samples in textbook
NAMED PIPES

 Named Pipes are more powerful than ordinary

pipes
 Communication is bidirectional

 No parent-child relationship is necessary

between the communicating processes
 Several processes can use the named pipe for
communication
 Provided on both UNIX and Windows systems