Professional Linux Kernel Architecture

Chapter 2

Process Management and Scheduling

All modern operating systems are able to run several processes at the same time—at least, this is the impression users get. If a system has only one processor, only one program can run on it at a given time. In multiprocessor systems, the number of processes that can truly run in parallel is determined by the number of physical CPUs.

The kernel and the processor create the illusion of multitasking—the ability to perform several operations in parallel—by switching repeatedly between the different applications running on the system at very rapid intervals. Because the switching intervals are so short, users do not notice the intervening brief periods of inactivity and gain the impression that the computer is actually doing several things at once.

This kind of system management gives rise to several issues that the kernel must resolve, the most important of which are listed below.

• Applications must not interfere with each other unless this is expressly desired. For example, an error in application A must not be propagated to application B. Because Linux is a multiuser system, it must also be ensured that programs are not able to read or modify the memory contents of other programs—otherwise, it would be extremely easy to access the private data of other users.
• CPU time must be shared as fairly as possible between the various applications, whereby some programs are regarded as more important than others.

I deal with the first requirement—memory ...