Fork() system call

The Fork system call is used for creating a new process (child process) which runs concurrently with the process that makes the fork() call (parent process). After a new child process is created, both processes will execute the next instruction following the fork() system call. With forking,the operating system creates a child process, which is an exact copy of the parent process. This includes copying the process's memory, file descriptors, and execution context.

• pid = fork(): This creates a new process. The return value is stored in pid (integer).
• Child Process: fork() returns 0.
• Parent Process: fork() returns a positive value (the pid of the child process).
• Error Handling: If fork() returns a negative value, it indicates that the process creation failed.

Some other system calls used along with fork()

• wait(NULL): The parent process waits for each child process to finish before proceeding. This ensures that all clients complete their work before the program ends.
• getpid(): This system call retrieves the process ID of the current process.