Process State

Process State

As a process executes, it changes state. The state of a process is defined in part by the current activity of that process. Each process may be in one of the following states:

• New: The process is being created.

• Running: Instructions are being executed.

• Waiting: The process is waiting for some event to occur (such as an I/O completion or reception of a signal).

• Ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a processor.

• Terminated: The process has finished execution.

These names are arbitrary, and vary between operating systems. The states that they represent are found on all systems, however. Certain operating systems also distinguish among more finely delineating process states. It is important to realize that only one process can be running on any processor at any instant. Many processes may be ready and waiting, however. The state diagram corresponding to these states is presented in (Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1 : - Diagram Of Process State