Summary

Explore the core UNIX process APIs including fork, exec, and wait to understand process creation and control. Learn how parent and child processes interact, how exec can replace a process's program, and how these APIs support features like input/output redirection and signals for process management.

We'll cover the following...

We have introduced some of the APIs dealing with UNIX process creation: fork(), exec(), and wait(). However, we have just skimmed the surface. For more detail, read Stevens and Rago“Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment” by W. Richard Stevens, Stephen A. Rago. Addison-Wesley, 2005. All nuances and subtleties of using UNIX APIs are found herein. Buy this book! Read it! And most importantly, live it., of course, particularly the chapters on Process Control, Process Relationships, and Signals; there is much to extract from the wisdom therein. While our passion for the UNIX process API remains strong, we should also note that such positivity is not uniform. ...