Process state

In a multitasking computer system, processes may occupy a variety of states. These distinct states may not actually be recognized as such by the operating system kernel. However, they are a useful abstraction for the understanding of processes.

The various process states, displayed in a state diagram, with arrows indicating possible transitions between states - as can be seen, some processes are stored in main memory (yellow), and some are stored in secondary memory (green).

Primary process states

The following typical process states are possible on computer systems of all kinds. In most of these states, processes are "stored" on main memory.

Created

(Also called New) When a process is first created, it occupies the "created" or "new" state. In this state, the process awaits admission to the "ready" state. This admission will be approved or delayed by a long-term, or admission, scheduler. Typically in most desktop computer systems, this admission will be approved automatically. However, for real-time operating systems this admission may be delayed. In a real time system, admitting too many processes to the "ready" state may lead to oversaturation and overcontention for the systems resources, leading to an inability to meet process deadlines.

Ready and waiting

A "ready" or "waiting" process has been loaded into main memory and is awaiting execution on a CPU (to be context switched onto the CPU by the dispatcher, or short-term scheduler). There may be many "ready" processes at any one point of the system's execution—for example, in a one-processor system, only one process can be executing at any one time, and all other "concurrently executing" processes will be waiting for execution.

A ready queue or run queue is used in computer scheduling. Modern computers are capable of running many different programs or processes at the same time. However, the CPU is only capable of handling one process at a time. Processes that are ready for the CPU are kept in a queue for "ready" processes. Other processes that are waiting for an event to occur, such as loading information from a hard drive or waiting on an internet connection, are not in the ready queue.

Running

A process moves into the running state when it is chosen for execution. The process's instructions are executed by one of the CPUs (or cores) of the system. There is at most one running process per CPU or core. A process can run in either of the two modes, namely kernel mode or user mode.[1][2]

Kernel mode

User mode

Blocked

A process that is blocked on some event (such as I/O operation completion or a signal), may be blocked due to various reasons, such as exhausting its CPU time allocation or waiting for an event to occur.

Terminated

Main article: Zombie process

A process may be terminated, either from the "running" state by completing its execution or by explicitly being killed. In either of these cases, the process moves to the "terminated" state. The underlying program is no longer executing, but the process remains in the process table as a zombie process until its parent process calls the wait system call to read its exit status, at which point the process is removed from the process table, finally ending the process's lifetime. If the parent fails to call wait, this continues to consume the process table entry (concretely the process identifier or PID), and causes a resource leak.

Additional process states

Two additional states are available for processes in systems that support virtual memory. In both of these states, processes are "stored" on secondary memory (typically a hard disk).

Swapped out and waiting

(Also called suspended and waiting.) In systems that support virtual memory, a process may be swapped out, that is, removed from main memory and placed on external storage by the scheduler. From here the process may be swapped back into the waiting state.

Swapped out and blocked

(Also called suspended and blocked.) Processes that are blocked may also be swapped out. In this event the process is both swapped out and blocked, and may be swapped back in again under the same circumstances as a swapped out and waiting process (although in this case, the process will move to the blocked state, and may still be waiting for a resource to become available).

See also

References

  1. Abraham Silberschatz; Peter Baer Galvin; Greg Gagne. Operating System Concepts. ISBN 0470128720.
  2. Maurice J. Bach. The design of the UNIX operating system. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA ©1986. ISBN 0-13-201799-7.
  • Stallings, William (2005). Operating Systems: internals and design principles (5th edition). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-127837-1. 
Particularly chapter 3, section 3.2, "process states", including figure 3.9 "process state transition with suspend states"
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