Operating Systems

Lecture 9
Fork and Exec
Read Ch 4.4 - 4.5

4.1
 Process Creation

 A parent process creates child process(es).

Parent

Child Child

4.2
 The fork( ) command

 In UNIX, a child process is created with the fork( ) command.

cpid = fork( );

 This creates a copy of the process that executed the fork( )

command.
 Address spaces for the two processes are (almost) identical.
 Both processes have identical open files
 Both processes have the program counter (PC) pointing to the
statement after the fork( ) command.
 The ID of the child process is returned to the parent by fork( ).
 Zero is returned to the child process.

4.3
 Using fork( )

Example:

int main( void) {

int cpid;
cpid = fork( );
cout << "Hello there." << endl;
}

Question: What is the output?

Demo 1

4.4
 Diagram of fork( )

We will draw this in class.

Question: What is the difference between the two processes?

4.5
 Distinguishing Parent and Child

Typical code to distinguish parent and child:

cpid = fork( );
if (cpid == 0) {
//child code
} else {
//parent code
}

Demo 2

4.6
 Multiple forks
What is the output of the following code?

int main (void) {

int cpid, cpid2;
cpid = fork( );
cpid2 = fork( );
if (cpid == 0) {
cout << "I am the first child." << endl;
} else if (cpid2 == 0 ) {
cout << "I am the second child." << endl;
} else {
cout << "I am the parent." << endl;
}
return 0;
}
Demo 3

4.7
 Diagram of two process code

We will diagram this in class.

4.8
 Distinguishing the grandchild from the
child
Question: How do you distinguish the grandchild from the child?
We will write this code in class.

4.9
 Multiple forks from the parent only

Question: How do you get the first child not to fork( )?

We will write this code in class.

4.10
 The exec( ) function

 There are many versions of the exec( ) function:

 execv( ), execl( ), execlp( ), execv( ), execvp( ),
etc.
 We will use execlp( ) and execvp( )

execlp( "cmd", arg0, arg1, arg2 ...,

NULL);

execvp( "cmd", argv);

4.11
 Properties of the exec( ) call

 The process that calls exec( ) is demolished.

 exec( ) overlays (most of) the address space of the
caller with the executable file, cmd.
 exec( ) overlays the memory image of the process.
 The parameters are passed appropriately.
 Note: Open files are inherited.
 If you want both child1 and child2 to read/write
to the same file, the parent should open it.

4.12
 Example with execlp( )

int main(void) {
int cpid;
cpid = fork( );
if (cpid == 0) { //child
execlp( "ls", "ls", "-l", NULL);
} else {
cout << "I am the parent." << endl;
}
return 0;
}

Demo 4

4.13
 Process synchronization
 The parent can wait for a child to terminate using the wait( )
function.
int cpid_done, status;
cpid_done = wait(&status);
 The caller sleeps until any child terminates.
 cpid_done gets the pid of the child that terminated.
 status gets the exit status of the terminated process.

int cpid_done, status, options = 0;

cpid_done = waitpid(cpid, &status, options);
 caller sleeps until child with cpid terminates.
 returns the pid of the terminating child
 stores the status of the terminating child in status.

4.14
 Process Termination

 A process terminates with the exit (status) call

 This terminates the process.
 It closes all open files associated with the
process.
 Destroys the image of the memory image.

4.15
 Typical code using fork, exec and wait

int main( void )

int cpid, cpid_done, status;
cpid = fork( );
if (cpid == 0) { //child
// call exec function with desired cmd
} else {
cpid = wait(&status);
//rest of parent code
}
return 0;
}
Demo 5

4.16
 Basic Shell code

Pseudo-code for basic shell (not real C++ code):

while (not EOF) {

parse_command_line; (get command, args, redirect, etc.)
p = fork( );
if (p == 0) {
//redirect I/O (takes a few steps to do)
// exec (cmd, args)
} else {
if (command doesn't end with &)
wait( );
}
}

4.17