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    System Calls: Abhijit A. M

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    yogeshwari bahiram
    System calls allow programs to request services from the operating system kernel. Common system calls include open(), read(), write(), fork(), and exec() for file, process, and memory management. The fork() system call creates a new process that is an identical copy of the calling process, while exec() overlays the current process with a new executable, replacing the previous program. Shell programs use fork() to create child processes and exec() to launch other programs specified by the user.

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    System Calls: Abhijit A. M

    Uploaded by

    yogeshwari bahiram
    38 views16 pages
    System calls allow programs to request services from the operating system kernel. Common system calls include open(), read(), write(), fork(), and exec() for file, process, and memory management. The fork() system call creates a new process that is an identical copy of the calling process, while exec() overlays the current process with a new executable, replacing the previous program. Shell programs use fork() to create child processes and exec() to launch other programs specified by the user.

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    4.system-calls

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    System calls allow programs to request services from the operating system kernel. Common system calls include open(), read(), write(), fork(), and exec() for file, process, and memory management. The fork() system call creates a new process that is an identical copy of the calling process, while exec() overlays the current process with a new executable, replacing the previous program. Shell programs use fork() to create child processes and exec() to launch other programs specified by the user.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    38 views16 pages

    System Calls: Abhijit A. M

    Uploaded by

    yogeshwari bahiram
    System calls allow programs to request services from the operating system kernel. Common system calls include open(), read(), write(), fork(), and exec() for file, process, and memory management. The fork() system call creates a new process that is an identical copy of the calling process, while exec() overlays the current process with a new executable, replacing the previous program. Shell programs use fork() to create child processes and exec() to launch other programs specified by the user.

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    System Calls

    Abhijit A. M.
    abhijit.comp@coep.ac.in
    (C) Abhijit A.M.
    Available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License V3.0+

    Credits: Slides of “OS Book” ed10.


    System Calls

    Services provided by operating system to
    applications

    Essentially available to applications by calling the
    particular software interrupt application

    E.g. “INT 0x80” on x86 processors

    Different arguments specified in EAX register inform
    the kernel about different system calls

    The C library has wrapper functions for each of the
    system calls

    E.g. open(), read(), write(), fork(), mmap(), etc.
    Types of System Calls

    File System Related

    Open(), read(), write(), close(), etc.

    Processes Related

    Fork(), exec(), ...

    Memory management related

    Mmap(), shm_open(), ...

    Device Management

    Information maintainance – time,date

    Communication between processes (IPC)

    Read man syscalls

    https://linuxhint.com/list_of_linux_syscalls/
    int main() {
    int a = 2;

    }
    printf("hi\n"); Code schematic
    -----
    C Library -------user-kernel-mode-
    ----- boundary----
    int printf("void *a, ...) {
    //OS code
    ...
    write(1, a, ...); int sys_write(int fd, char *, int
    } len) {
    int write(int fd, char *, int len) {
    figure out location on disk
    int ret;
    ... where to do the write and
    mov $5, %eax, carry out the operation,
    mov ... %ebx,
    mov ..., %ecx
    etc.
    int $0x80 }
    __asm__("movl %eax, -4(%ebp)"); # -
    4ebp is ret
    return ret;
    }
    Two important system calls
    Related to processes

    fork() and exec()


    Process

    A program in execution

    Exists in RAM

    Scheduled by OS

    In a timesharing system, intermittantly
    scheduled by allocating a time quantum, e.g. 20
    microseconds

    The “ps” command on Linux
    Process in RAM

    Memory is required to store the following
    components of a process

    Code

    Global variables (data)

    Stack (stores local variables of functions)

    Heap (stores malloced memory)

    Shared libraries (e.g. code of printf, etc)

    Few other things, may be
    MS-DOS: a single tasking operating system
    Only one program in RAM at a time, and only one program can run at a time
    A multi tasking system
    With multiple programs loaded in memory
    Along with kernel
    (A very simplified conceptual diagram. Things are more complex in
    reality)
    fork()

    A running process creates it’s duplicate!

    After call to fork() is over

    Two processes are running

    Identical

    The calling function returns in two places!

    Caller is called parent, and the new process is
    called child

    PID is returned to parent and 0 to child
    exec()

    Variants: execvp(), execl(), etc.

    Takes the path name of an executable as an
    argument

    Overwrites the existing process using the
    code provided in the executable

    The original process is OVER ! Vanished!

    The new program starts running
    overwritting the existing process!
    Shell using fork and exec

    Demo

    The only way a process can be created on Unix/Linux is using
    fork() + exec()

    All processes that you see were started by some other process
    using fork() + exec() , except the initial “init” process

    When you click on “firefox” icon, the user-interface program does
    a fork() + exec() to start firefox; same with a command line shell
    program

    The “bash” shell you have been using is nothing but an advanced
    version of the shell code shown during the demo

    See the process tree starting from “init”

    Your next assignment
    The boot process, once again

    BIOS

    Boot loader

    OS – kernel

    Init created by kernel by Hand(kernel mode)

    Kernel schedules init (the only process)

    Init fork-execs some programs (user mode)

    Now these programs will be scheduled by OS

    Init -> GUI -> terminal -> shell

    One of the typical parent-child relationships

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