Chapter 4. Processes

Table of Contents

4.1. Processes inside out

4.1.1. Multi-user and multi-tasking
4.1.2. Process types
4.1.3. Process attributes
4.1.4. Displaying process information
4.1.5. Life and death of a process
4.1.6. SUID and SGID

4.2. Boot process, Init and shutdown

4.2.1. Introduction
4.2.2. The boot process
4.2.3. GRUB features
4.2.4. Init
4.2.5. Init run levels
4.2.6. Shutdown

4.3. Managing processes

4.3.1. Work for the system admin
4.3.2. How long does it take?
4.3.3. Performance
4.3.4. Load
4.3.5. Can I do anything as a user?

4.4. Scheduling processes

4.4.1. Use that idle time!
4.4.2. The sleep command
4.4.3. The at command
4.4.4. Cron and crontab

4.5. Summary

4.6. Exercises

4.6.1. General
4.6.2. Booting, init etc.
4.6.3. Scheduling

Next to files, processes are the most important things on a UNIX/Linux system. In this chapter, we will take a closer look at those processes. We will learn more about:

Multi-user processing and multi-tasking
Process types
Controlling processes with different signals
Process attributes
The life cycle of a process
System startup and shutdown
SUID and SGID
System speed and response
Scheduling processes
The Vixie cron system
How to get the most out of your system