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Here is the full summary about Linux operating system
- Linux is a free OS whose kernel was built by Linus Trovalds and friends
- A Linux distribution consists of the kernel with source code along with a large collection of applications, libraries, scripts, etc.
- C programs under Linux can be compiled using the popular gcc compiler
- Basic scheduling unit in Linux is a ‘Process’. Processes are scheduled by a special program called ‘Scheduler’
- fork( ) library function can be used to create child processes.
- Init process is the father of all processes
- execl( ) library function is used to execute another program from within a running program
- execl( ) function overwrites the image (code and data) of the calling process
- execl( ) and fork( ) usually go hand in hand.
- ps command can be used to get a list of all processes.
- kill command can be used to terminate a process.
- A ‘Zombie’ is a child process that has terminated but its parent is running and has not called a function to get the exit code of the child process
- An ‘Orphan’ is a child process whose parent has terminated
- Orphaned processes are adopted by init process automatically.
- A parent process can avoid creation of a Zombie and Orphan processes using waitpid() function.
