The fork1() Kernel Routine
Today the two system calls fork() and vfork() enter the kernel at the same point: fork1(). This kernel routine looks for the passed forktype argument (set to either FORK_PROCESS or FORK_VFORK) to determine which set of rules to play by. In either case, a number of kernel procedures are used. Let's first examine the actions for forktype=FORK_PROCESS, the full copy-on-write version.
The fork() System Call Mechanics
After entering fork1(), calls are made to obtain unique process and thread identification numbers. The current release of HP-UX reserves pid 0 through 7 for system use (0 for the swapper, 1 for init, 2 for page-out, 3 for statdaemon, 4 for the unhash daemon, 5 for netisr, 6 for the socket registration daemon, ...
Get HP-UX 11i Internals now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
