OCA Oracle Solaris 11 System Administration Exam Guide (Exam 1Z0-821)

Understanding Processes

The kernel will execute code located in a file if the file has the execute bit set and the contents can be interpreted as other process commands or machine instructions. At a fundamental level, that code operates by requesting system resources through functions known as system calls. Through system calls, any process may allocate memory, read from or write to files, access a system device, or access other logical resources (such as a network connection) that are managed by the operating system. The operating system determines when the process may start and run, when it has to wait, and when it shuts down. The program code that drives the process, from the user perspective, could be anything: an HTTP browser, a text editor, ...