Process Management Structures

Core Concepts

• Process:
  • Wikipedia: Process (computing)
  • An instance of a program in execution.
• Process Management:
  • GeeksforGeeks: Process Management in Operating System
  • The tasks performed by an operating system to manage processes.

Key Data Structures

• Process Control Block (PCB):
  • Wikipedia: Process control block
  • A data structure that stores information about a process, such as its process ID, state, program counter, register values, memory allocation details, and more.
• Process Table:
  • Techopedia: Process Table
  • A table maintained by the operating system that contains entries (usually PCBs) for each active process.

Process States

• Process State:
  • Wikipedia: Process state
  • Represents the current activity of a process, such as running, ready, blocked (waiting), etc.
• Process State Diagram:
  • GeeksforGeeks: Process States in Operating System
  • Illustrates the possible states of a process and transitions between them.

Process Scheduling

• Process Scheduling:
  • Tutorialspoint: CPU Scheduling
  • The mechanism by which the operating system determines which process gets access to the CPU and for how long.
• Scheduling Algorithms:
  • GeeksforGeeks: CPU Scheduling Algorithms
  • Various algorithms like First-Come, First-Served (FCFS), Shortest Job First (SJF), Priority Scheduling, Round Robin, etc., used to determine the execution order of processes.

Inter-process Communication (IPC)

• Inter-process Communication:
  • Wikipedia: Inter-process communication
  • Mechanisms that allow processes to communicate and synchronize with each other. Examples include:
    • Pipes: Wikipedia: Pipeline (Unix)
    • Message Queues: Wikipedia: Message queue
    • Shared Memory: Wikipedia: Shared memory
    • Sockets: Wikipedia: Network socket

Threads and Concurrency

• Thread (computing):
  • Wikipedia: Thread (computing)
  • A lightweight process that shares resources with other threads within the same process.
• Concurrency (computer science):
  • Wikipedia: Concurrency (computer science)
  • Dealing with multiple tasks seemingly at the same time.
• Thread Synchronization:
  • Tutorialspoint: Thread Synchronization
  • Mechanisms (like mutexes, semaphores, etc.) to prevent race conditions and ensure data consistency when multiple threads access shared resources.

Additional Resources

• Books:
  • Operating System Concepts by Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne (ISBN: 978-1292400451)
  • Modern Operating Systems by Andrew S. Tanenbaum (ISBN: 978-0133591620)