Advanced

A new way of sleeping in the Linux kernel

Posted by Roger on · Post a comment
IBM/developerWorks; By Avinesh Kumar 		Mail this story
Print this story

Like files, processes are fundamental to any UNIX® operating system. Processes are live entities executing the instructions of an executable file. Apart from executing its instructions, a process might be engaged in managing open files, processor context, address space, and data related to the program, among other things. The Linux kernel keeps complete information about a process in a process descriptor defined as struct task_struct. You can see the various fields of struct task_struct in the Linux kernel source file include/linux/sched.h.

The Linux Kernel version 2.6.25 introduces a new Linux process sleeping state, TASK_KILLABLE: If a process is sleeping killably in this new state, it works like TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE with the bonus that it can respond to fatal signals. This feature is generally an improvement over the existing options—after all, it is another way to keep from getting stuck with dead processes.

Full Story

  Nav
» Read more about: Story Type: News Story, Tutorial; Groups: Community, Kernel, Linux

» Get new stories by e-mail: nightly or as they are published

« Return to the newswire homepage

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first.

Post a comment

A free account is needed to post. Write your comment here first: your text is kept in this browser while you sign up or log in, and is waiting for you when you come back.

Your message:
|||||
10
Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, [text](https://link), - lists, > quotes, $x^2$ for math. Formatting help

Sign up and post (it is free)  or  Log in and post