Unit-2

Process Management

Semester 4
B.Tech IT
Ms Anju.A
AP/IT
Outline

■ Process Concept
❑ Process Scheduling
❑ Operations on Processes
❑ Cooperating Processes
■ Threads
■ Interprocess Communication
 Course Outcome

Apply process
K3
synchronization, process
CO2 scheduling, and
deadlocks concepts in
the given scenario to
solve the problems.
Process Concept

■ An operating system executes a variety of

programs
■ batch systems - jobs
■ time-shared systems - user programs or tasks
■ Job, task and program used interchangeably
■ Process - a program in execution
■ process execution proceeds in a sequential fashion
■ A process contains
■ program counter, stack and data section
 Process =? Program
main () main ()
Heap
{ {
…; …;
} }
Stack

A() { A() {
A
main
… …
} Program } Proces
■ More to a process than just a program: s
❑ Program is just part of the process state
❑ I run Vim or Notepad on lectures.txt, you run it on homework.java – Same
program, different processes
■ Less to a process than a program:
❑ A program can invoke more than one process
❑ A web browser launches multiple processes, e.g., one per tab
Process State

■ A process changes state as it executes.

new admitted
exit terminated

interrupt

running
ready

Scheduler
I/O or dispatch
event I/O or
completion event wait

waiting
Process States

■ New - The process is being created.

■ Running - Instructions are being executed.
■ Waiting - Waiting for some event to occur.
■ Ready - Waiting to be assigned to a
processor.
■ Terminated - Process has finished execution.
Process Control Block
■ Contains information
associated with each process
■ Process State - e.g. new,
ready, running etc.
■ Process Number – Process ID
■ Program Counter - address of
next instruction to be executed
■ CPU registers - general
purpose registers, stack
pointer etc.
■ CPU scheduling information -
process priority, pointer
■ Memory Management
information - base/limit
information
■ Accounting information - time Process
limits, process number
■ I/O Status information - list of
Control
I/O devices allocated Block
Representation of Process Scheduling
Process (PCB) moves from queue to queue
When does it move? Where? A scheduling decision
Process Queues

Device
Queue

Ready
Queue
Ready Queue And Various I/O
Device Queues
Process Scheduling Queues

■ 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.
■ Process migration between the various queues.
■ Queue Structures - typically linked list, circular list
etc.
 Enabling Concurrency and Protection:
Multiplex processes
■ Only one process (PCB) active at a time
❑ Current state of process held in PCB:
■ “snapshot” of the execution and protection environment
❑ Process needs CPU, resources

■ Give out CPU time to different processes

(Scheduling):
❑ Only one process “running” at a time
❑ Give more time to important processes

■ Give pieces of resources to different processes

(Protection):
❑ Controlled access to non-CPU resources
■ E.g. Memory Mapping: Give each process their own
address space Proces
s
Control
Block
Enabling Concurrency: Context Switch

■ Task that switches CPU from one process to

another process
❑ the CPU must save the PCB state of the old process and
load the saved PCB state of the new process.
■ Context-switch time is overhead
❑ System does no useful work while switching
❑ Overhead sets minimum practical switching time; can
become a bottleneck
■ Time for context switch is dependent on
hardware support ( 1- 1000 microseconds).
CPU Switch From Process to Process

■ Code executed in kernel above is overhead

❑ Overhead sets minimum practical switching time
Schedulers
■ Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) -
❑ selects which processes should be brought into the ready
queue.
❑ invoked very infrequently (seconds, minutes); may be slow.
❑ controls the degree of multiprogramming
■ Short term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) -
❑ selects which process should execute next and allocates
CPU.
❑ invoked very frequently (milliseconds) - must be very fast
❑ Sometimes the only scheduler in the system
■ Medium Term Scheduler
❑ swaps out process temporarily
❑ balances load for better throughput
Medium Term (Time-sharing)
Scheduler
A tree of processes in Linux

18
Process Profiles

■ I/O bound process -

❑ spends more time in I/O, short CPU bursts, CPU
underutilized.
■ CPU bound process -
❑ spends more time doing computations; few very long CPU
bursts, I/O underutilized.
■ The right job mix:
❑ Long term scheduler - admits jobs to keep load balanced
between I/O and CPU bound processes
❑ Medium term scheduler – ensures the right mix (by
sometimes swapping out jobs and resuming them later)
Process Creation

■ Processes are created and deleted

dynamically
■ Process which creates another process is
called a parent process; the created process
is called a child process.
■ Result is a tree of processes
■ e.g. UNIX - processes have dependencies and form a
hierarchy.
■ Resources required when creating process
■ CPU time, files, memory, I/O devices etc.
UNIX Process Hierarchy
What does it take to create a process?

■ Must construct new PCB

❑ Inexpensive
■ Must set up new page tables for address space
❑ More expensive
■ Copy data from parent process? (Unix fork() )
❑ Semantics of Unix fork() are that the child process gets a
complete copy of the parent memory and I/O state
❑ Originally very expensive
❑ Much less expensive with “copy on write”
■ Copy I/O state (file handles, etc)
❑ Medium expense
Process Creation

■ Resource sharing
❑ Parent and children share all resources.
❑ Children share subset of parent‟s resources - prevents
many processes from overloading the system.
❑ Parent and children share no resources.
■ Execution
❑ Parent and child execute concurrently.
❑ Parent waits until child has terminated.
■ Address Space
❑ Child process is duplicate of parent process.
❑ Child process has a program loaded into it.
UNIX Process Creation

■ Fork system call creates new processes

■ execve system call is used after a fork to

replace the processes memory space with a
new program.
Process Termination

■ Process executes last statement and asks

the operating system to delete it (exit).
❑ Output data from child to parent (via wait).
❑ Process‟ resources are deallocated by operating system.
■ Parent may terminate execution of child
processes.
❑ Child has exceeded allocated resources.
❑ Task assigned to child is no longer required.
❑ Parent is exiting
▪ OS does not allow child to continue if parent terminates
▪ Cascading termination
Threads

■ Processes do not share resources well

❑ high context switching overhead
■ Idea: Separate concurrency from protection
■ Multithreading: a single program made up of a number of
different concurrent activities
■ A thread (or lightweight process)
❑ basic unit of CPU utilization; it consists of:
▪ program counter, register set and stack space
■ A thread shares the following with peer threads:
▪ code section, data section and OS resources (open files, signals)
▪ No protection between threads
■ Collectively called a task.
■ Heavyweight process is a task with one thread.
 Single and Multithreaded Processes

■ Threads encapsulate concurrency: “Active” component

■ Address spaces encapsulate protection: “Passive” part
❑ Keeps buggy program from trashing the system
Benefits
■ Responsiveness

■ Resource Sharing

■ Economy

■ Utilization of MP Architectures
Threads(Cont.)

■ In a multiple threaded task, while one server

thread is blocked and waiting, a second
thread in the same task can run.
■ Cooperation of multiple threads in the same job confers
higher throughput and improved performance.
■ Applications that require sharing a common buffer (i.e.
producer-consumer) benefit from thread utilization.
■ Threads provide a mechanism that allows
sequential processes to make blocking
system calls while also achieving parallelism.
Thread State
■ State shared by all threads in process/addr
space
❑ Contents of memory (global variables, heap)
❑ I/O state (file system, network connections, etc)
■ State “private” to each thread
❑ Kept in TCB Thread Control Block
❑ CPU registers (including, program counter)
❑ Execution stack
■ Parameters, Temporary variables
■ return PCs are kept while called procedures are
executing
Threads (cont.)

■ Thread context switch still requires a register

set switch, but no memory management
related work!!
■ Thread states -
■ ready, blocked, running, terminated
■ Threads share CPU and only one thread can
run at a time.
■ No protection among threads.
 Examples: Multithreaded programs
■ Embedded systems
❑ Elevators, Planes, Medical systems, Wristwatches
❑ Single Program, concurrent operations
■ Most modern OS kernels
❑ Internally concurrent because have to deal with
concurrent requests by multiple users
❑ But no protection needed within kernel
■ Database Servers
❑ Access to shared data by many concurrent users
❑ Also background utility processing must be done
More Examples: Multithreaded programs

■ Network Servers
❑ Concurrent requests from network
❑ Again, single program, multiple concurrent operations
❑ File server, Web server, and airline reservation systems

■ Parallel Programming (More than one physical CPU)

❑ Split program into multiple threads for parallelism
❑ This is called Multiprocessing
 spaces:
# of addr
One Many
# threads
Per AS:

MS/DOS, early
One Traditional UNIX
Macintosh
Embedded systems Mach, OS/2, Linux
(Geoworks, VxWorks, Windows 9x???
Many JavaOS,etc) Win NT to XP, Solaris,
JavaOS, Pilot(PC) HP-UX, OS X

Real operating systems have either

❑ One or many address spaces
❑ One or many threads per address space
Types of Threads

■ Kernel-supported threads
■ User-level threads
■ Hybrid approach implements both user-level
and kernel-supported threads (Solaris 2).
Kernel Threads

■ Supported by the Kernel

❑ Native threads supported directly by the kernel
❑ Every thread can run or block independently
❑ One process may have several threads waiting on different things

■ Downside of kernel threads: a bit expensive

❑ Need to make a crossing into kernel mode to schedule

■ Examples
❑ Windows XP/2000, Solaris, Linux,Tru64 UNIX,
Mac OS X, Mach, OS/2
User Threads
■ Supported above the kernel, via a set of library calls
at the user level.
■ Thread management done by user-level threads library
❑ User program provides scheduler and thread package
■ May have several user threads per kernel thread
■ User threads may be scheduled non-premptively relative to
each other (only switch on yield())
❑ Advantages
■ Cheap, Fast
❑ Threads do not need to call OS and cause interrupts to kernel
❑ Disadv: If kernel is single threaded, system call from any
thread can block the entire task.
■ Example thread libraries:
❑ POSIX Pthreads, Win32 threads, Java threads
Multithreading Models

■ Many-to-One

■ One-to-One

■ Many-to-Many
Many-to-One
■ Many user-level threads mapped to single
kernel thread
■ Examples:
❑ Solaris Green Threads
❑ GNU Portable Threads
One-to-One

■ Each user-level thread maps to kernel thread

Examples
❑ Windows NT/XP/2000; Linux; Solaris 9 and later
Many-to-Many Model
■ Allows many user level
threads to be mapped to
many kernel threads
■ Allows the operating
system to create a
sufficient number of
kernel threads
■ Solaris prior to version 9
■ Windows NT/2000 with
the ThreadFiber package
Thread Support in Solaris 2

■ Solaris 2 is a version of UNIX with support for

❑ kernel and user level threads, symmetric multiprocessing
and real-time scheduling.
■ Lightweight Processes (LWP)
❑ intermediate between user and kernel level threads
❑ each LWP is connected to exactly one kernel thread
Threads in Solaris 2
Threads in Solaris 2

■ Resource requirements of thread types

■ Kernel Thread: small data structure and stack; thread
switching does not require changing memory access
information - relatively fast.
■ Lightweight Process: PCB with register data, accounting
and memory information - switching between LWP is
relatively slow.
■ User-level thread: only needs stack and program
counter; no kernel involvement means fast switching.
Kernel only sees the LWPs that support user-level
threads.
Two-level Model
■ Similar to M:M, except that it allows a user
thread to be bound to kernel thread
■ Examples
❑ IRIX, HP-UX, Tru64 UNIX, Solaris 8 and earlier
Threading Issues

■ Semantics of fork() and exec() system

calls
■ Thread cancellation
■ Signal handling
■ Thread pools
■ Thread specific data
 Multi( processing, programming, threading)
■ Definitions:
❑ Multiprocessing = Multiple CPUs
❑ Multiprogramming = Multiple Jobs or Processes
❑ Multithreading = Multiple threads per Process
■ What does it mean to run two threads “concurrently”?
❑ Scheduler is free to run threads in any order and interleaving: FIFO, Random,
…
❑ Dispatcher can choose to run each thread to completion or time-slice in big
chunks or small chunks

B
Multiprocessing
C

A B C

Multiprogramming A B C A B C B
Cooperating Processes

■ Concurrent Processes can be

❑ Independent processes
▪ cannot affect or be affected by the execution of another
process.
❑ Cooperating processes
▪ can affect or be affected by the execution of another process.
■ Advantages of process cooperation:
▪ Information sharing
▪ Computation speedup
▪ Modularity
▪ Convenience(e.g. editing, printing, compiling)
■ Concurrent execution requires
▪ process communication and process synchronization
 Interprocess Communication (IPC)

Proc 1 Proc 2 Proc 3

■ Separate address space isolates processes

❑ High Creation/Memory Overhead; (Relatively) High Context-Switch Overhead
■ Mechanism for processes to communicate and synchronize actions.
❑ Via shared memory - Accomplished by mapping addresses to common DRAM
▪ Read and Write through memory
❑ Via Messaging system - processes communicate without resorting
to shared variables.
▪ send() and receive() messages
▪ Can be used over the network!
❑ Messaging system and shared memory not mutually exclusive
▪ can be used simultaneously within a single OS or a single process.
 Shared Memory Communication
Data 2
Code Code
Stack 1 Data
Data
Heap 1 Heap
Heap
Code 1 Stack
Stack
Stack 2 Shared
Shared
Data 1
Prog 1 Prog 2
Heap 2 Virtual
Virtual
Address Code 2 Address
Space 1 Space 2
Shared
■ Communication occurs by “simply” reading/writing to shared
address page
❑ Really low overhead communication
❑ Introduces complex synchronization problems
Cooperating Processes via Message
Passing
■ IPC facility provides two operations.
send(message) - message size can be fixed or variable
receive(message)

■ If processes P and Q wish to communicate, they

need to:
❑ establish a communication link between them
❑ exchange messages via send/receive

■ Fixed vs. Variable size message

❑ Fixed message size - straightforward physical implementation,
programming task is difficult due to fragmentation
❑ Variable message size - simpler programming, more complex
physical implementation.
Implementation Questions

❑ How are links established?

❑ Can a link be associated with more than 2
processes?
❑ How many links can there be between every pair
of communicating processes?
❑ What is the capacity of a link?

❑ Fixed or variable size messages?

❑ Unidirectional or bidirectional links?

…….
Direct Communication

■ Sender and Receiver 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.
❑ Exactly one link between each pair.
❑ Link may be unidirectional, usually bidirectional.
Indirect Communication

■ Messages are directed to and received from

mailboxes (also called ports)
▪ Unique ID for every mailbox.
▪ Processes can communicate only if they share a mailbox.
Send(A, message) /* send message to mailbox A */
Receive(A, message) /* receive message from mailbox A */
■ Properties of communication link
▪ Link established only if processes share a common mailbox.
▪ Link can be associated with many processes.
▪ Pair of processes may share several communication links
▪ Links may be unidirectional or bidirectional
Indirect Communication using
mailboxes
Mailboxes (cont.)

■ Operations
▪ create a new mailbox
▪ send/receive messages through mailbox
▪ destroy a mailbox
■ Issue: Mailbox sharing
▪ P1, P2 and P3 share mailbox A.
▪ P1 sends message, P2 and P3 receive… who gets
message??
■ Possible Solutions
▪ disallow links between more than 2 processes
▪ allow only one process at a time to execute receive operation
▪ allow system to arbitrarily select receiver and then notify
sender.
Message Buffering

■ Link has some capacity - determine the

number of messages that can reside
temporarily in it.
■ Queue of messages attached to link
❑ Zero-capacity Queues: 0 messages
▪ sender waits for receiver (synchronization is called
rendezvous)
❑ Bounded capacity Queues: Finite length of n messages
▪ sender waits if link is full
❑ Unbounded capacity Queues: Infinite queue length
▪ sender never waits
Message Problems - Exception
Conditions
❑ Process Termination
■ Problem: P(sender) terminates, Q(receiver) blocks forever.
❑ Solutions:
▪ System terminates Q.
▪ System notifies Q that P has terminated.
▪ Q has an internal mechanism(timer) that determines how long to wait
for a message from P.
■ Problem: P(sender) sends message, Q(receiver) terminates.
In automatic buffering, P sends message until buffer is full or
forever. In no-buffering scheme, P blocks forever.
❑ Solutions:
▪ System notifies P
▪ System terminates P
▪ P and Q use acknowledgement with timeout
Message Problems - Exception
Conditions
■ Lost Messages
▪ OS guarantees retransmission
▪ sender is responsible for detecting it using timeouts
▪ sender gets an exception
■ Scrambled Messages
❑ Message arrives from sender P to receiver Q, but
information in message is corrupted due to noise in
communication channel.
❑ Solution
▪ need error detection mechanism, e.g. CHECKSUM
▪ need error correction mechanism, e.g. retransmission
Producer-Consumer Problem

■ Paradigm for cooperating processes;

❑ producer process produces information that is
consumed by a consumer process.
■ We need buffer of items that can be filled by
producer and emptied by consumer.
❑ Unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of
the buffer. Consumer may wait, producer never waits.
❑ Bounded-buffer assumes that there is a fixed buffer size.
Consumer waits for new item, producer waits if buffer is full.
❑ Producer and Consumer must synchronize.
Producer-Consumer Problem
Bounded Buffer using IPC
(messaging)
■ Producer
repeat
…
produce an item in nextp;
…
send(consumer, nextp);
until false;
■ Consumer
repeat
receive(producer, nextc);
…
consume item from nextc;
…
until false;
Bounded-buffer - Shared Memory
Solution
■ Shared data
var n;
type item = ….;
var buffer: array[0..n-1] of item;
in, out: 0..n-1;
in :=0; out:= 0; /* shared buffer = circular array */
/* Buffer empty if in == out */
/* Buffer full if (in+1) mod n == out */
/* noop means „do nothing‟ */
Bounded Buffer - Shared Memory
Solution
■ Producer process - creates filled buffers
repeat
…
produce an item in nextp
…
while in+1 mod n = out do noop;
buffer[in] := nextp;
in := in+1 mod n;
until false;
Bounded Buffer - Shared Memory
Solution
■ Consumer process - Empties filled buffers
repeat
while in = out do noop;
nextc := buffer[out] ;
out:= out+1 mod n;
…
consume the next item in nextc
…
until false
 SESSION OUTCOME

Apply process
synchronization, process
scheduling, and
deadlocks concepts in
the given scenario to K3
CO2 solve the problems.

Students can able to

SO understand Process
Management
SESSION EVALUATION

Q&A

FEEDBA 3
1