Understanding Process Management in Linux Internals

The efficient management of processes is a cornerstone of the Linux operating system’s stability and performance. This document provides a detailed examination of the kernel’s internal mechanisms for process handling. We will explore the process lifecycle, encompassing creation via system calls such as fork() and clone(), program execution through the exec() family, and termination. Furthermore, we will analyze the critical Process Control Block (task_struct), which serves as the kernel’s central repository for process metadata, and elucidate the various states a process can assume. Finally, the principles of process scheduling, including the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS), will be discussed to provide a comprehensive understanding of resource allocation within the Linux environment.