Operations on Processes
What is a process?
A program that is under execution is known as a process.
Operation on the process:
The user can perform the following operations on a process in the operating system:
- Process creation
- Process scheduling or dispatching
- Blocking
- Preemption
- Termination
- Process creation
Process creation is the initial step to process execution. It implies the creation of a new process for execution.
- Process scheduling\dispatching
Scheduling or dispatching refers to the event where the OS puts the process from ready to running state. It is done by the system when there are free resources or there is a process of higher priority than the ongoing process.
- Blocking
Block mode is a mode where the system waits for input-output. In process blocking operation, the system puts the process in the waiting state. When a task is blocked, it is unable to execute until the task prior to it has finished using the shared resource. Examples of shared resources are the CPU, network and network interfaces, memory, and disk.
- Preemption
Preemption means the ability of the operating system to preempt a currently scheduled task in favour of a higher priority task. The resource being scheduled can be the processor or the I\O.
- Termination
Ending a process is known as process termination. There are many events that may lead to process termination, some of them are:
- One process terminating the other process.
- A problem in the hardware.
- The process is fully executed, implying that the OS is finished.
- An operating system might terminate itself due to service errors.
References:
Operation on process of operating system.