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fork(2) [v7 man page]

FORK(2) 							System Calls Manual							   FORK(2)

NAME
fork - spawn new process SYNOPSIS
fork( ) DESCRIPTION
Fork is the only way new processes are created. The new process's core image is a copy of that of the caller of fork. The only distinc- tion is the fact that the value returned in the old (parent) process contains the process ID of the new (child) process, while the value returned in the child is 0. Process ID's range from 1 to 30,000. This process ID is used by wait(2). Files open before the fork are shared, and have a common read-write pointer. In particular, this is the way that standard input and output files are passed and also how pipes are set up. SEE ALSO
wait(2), exec(2) DIAGNOSTICS
Returns -1 and fails to create a process if: there is inadequate swap space, the user is not super-user and has too many processes, or the system's process table is full. Only the super-user can take the last process-table slot. ASSEMBLER
(fork = 2.) sys fork (new process return) (old process return, new process ID in r0) The return locations in the old and new process differ by one word. The C-bit is set in the old process if a new process could not be cre- ated. FORK(2)

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FORK(2) 							System Calls Manual							   FORK(2)

NAME
fork - create a new process SYNOPSIS
pid = fork() int pid; DESCRIPTION
Fork causes creation of a new process. The new process (child process) is an exact copy of the calling process except for the following: The child process has a unique process ID. The child process has a different parent process ID (i.e., the process ID of the parent process). The child process has its own copy of the parent's descriptors. These descriptors reference the same underlying objects, so that, for instance, file pointers in file objects are shared between the child and the parent, so that an lseek(2) on a descriptor in the child process can affect a subsequent read or write by the parent. This descriptor copying is also used by the shell to establish standard input and output for newly created processes as well as to set up pipes. The child processes resource utilizations are set to 0; see setrlimit(2). RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, fork returns a value of 0 to the child process and returns the process ID of the child process to the parent process. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned to the parent process, no child process is created, and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS
Fork will fail and no child process will be created if one or more of the following are true: [EAGAIN] The system-imposed limit on the total number of processes under execution would be exceeded. This limit is configuration- dependent. [EAGAIN] The system-imposed limit MAXUPRC (<sys/param.h>) on the total number of processes under execution by a single user would be exceeded. [ENOMEM] There is insufficient swap space for the new process. SEE ALSO
execve(2), wait(2) 3rd Berkeley Distribution May 22, 1986 FORK(2)
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