Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment, Third Edition

8. Process Control

8.1. Introduction

We now turn to the process control provided by the UNIX System. This includes the creation of new processes, program execution, and process termination. We also look at the various IDs that are the property of the process—real, effective, and saved; user and group IDs—and how they’re affected by the process control primitives. Interpreter files and the system function are also covered. We conclude the chapter by looking at the process accounting provided by most UNIX systems. This lets us look at the process control functions from a different perspective.

8.2. Process Identifiers

Every process has a unique process ID, a non-negative integer. Because the process ID is the only well-known identifier of a ...