- Running instance of a program in the computer's memory
- A non-running program is a file
- Isolated from other processes
- Has its own unique process identifier (PID)
- Has a parent process
- Can create child processes
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# Launching a process
1. From the command-line
2. From another process
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# Launch a process: Command-line
- The file must contain executable content, such as script or binary
- The file needs execute permission (`x`)
- The user must be part of the permitted group (`u`,`g` or `o`)
- By default processes launched from the command-line reserve the current session
- The process is launched in the background if the command ends in `&`
- The current session will be the parent process ID (PPID)
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# Launch a process: Another process
- Scripts can call other commands or scripts
- The operating system may have processes running that can execute commands or scripts
- Init
- Cron
- Calling process will be the parent process ID (PPID)
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# Processes on a timeline
ps
kill
pidof
Report a snapshot of the current processes
Send a signal to a process
Find the process ID of a running program