Fork System Call
Q1: What is the fork system call?
Answer:
The fork system call creates a new process(i.e Child Process) by duplicating the existing process(i.e Parent Process)
Q2: How is the fork system call used?
Answer:
The fork system call is invoked in a program to create a child process.
Q3: What is the return value of the fork system call?
Answer:
It returns the process ID of the child to the parent and 0 to the child.
Q4: What is the purpose of using the fork system call?
Answer:
The fork call allows for the creation of a new process that can perform tasks independent of the parent process.
Fork System Call in Operating System
In many operating systems, the fork system call is an essential operation. The fork system call allows the creation of a new process. When a process calls the fork(), it duplicates itself, resulting in two processes running at the same time. The new process that is created is called a child process. It is a copy of the parent process. The fork system call is required for process creation and enables many important features such as parallel processing, multitasking, and the creation of complex process hierarchies.
It develops an entirely new process with a distinct execution setting. The new process has its own address space, and memory, and is a perfect duplicate of the caller process.