parent process


parent process

(operating system)The Unix process that created one ormore other processes.

Every process except process 0 is created when another processexecutes the fork system call. The process that invokedfork is the parent process, and the newly created process isthe child process. Every process has one parent process,but can have many child processes.

The kernel identifies each process by its process identifier (PID). Process 0 is a special process that iscreated when the system boots; after forking a child process(process 1), process 0 becomes the swapper process. Process1, known as init, is the ancestor of every other process inthe system and enjoys a special relationship with them.