Overview: fork.py

The simulator fork.py is a simple tool to show what a process tree looks like when processes are created and destroyed.

To run it, just:

prompt> ./fork.py

What you’ll see then is a list of actions, such as whether a process calls fork to create another process, or whether a process calls exit to stop running.

Each process that is running can have multiple children (or none). Every process, except the initial process (which we call a here for simplicity), has a single parent. Thus, all processes are related in a tree, rooted at the initial process. We will call this tree the Process Tree and understanding what it looks like as processes are created and destroyed is the point of this simple homework.

Simple Example

Here is a simple example:

prompt> ./fork.py -s 4

                           Process Tree:
                               a
Action: a forks b
Process Tree?
Action: a forks c
Process Tree?
Action: b forks d
Process Tree?
Action: d EXITS
Process Tree?
Action: a forks e
Process Tree?

From the output, you can see two things. First, on the right, is the initial state of the system. As you can see, it contains one process, a. Operating systems often create one or a few initial processes to get things going; on Unix, for example, the initial process is called init which spawns other processes as the system runs.

Second, on the left, you can see a series of Action listings, in which various actions take place, and then a question is posed about the state of the process tree is at that point.

To solve, and show all outputs, use the -c flag, as follows:

prompt> ./fork.py -s 4 -c                                                                       +100

                           Process Tree:
                               a

Action: a forks b
                               a
                               └── b
Action: a forks c
                               a
                               ├── b
                               └── c
Action: b forks d
                               a
                               ├── b
                               │   └── d
                               └── c
Action: d EXITS
                               a
                               ├── b
                               └── c
Action: a forks e
                               a
                               ├── b
                               ├── c
                               └── e
prompt>

As you can see, the expected tree that results (shown left-to-right) from a particular operation is shown now. After the first action, a forks b, you see a very simple tree, with a shown as b’s parent. After a few more forks, a call to exit is made by d, which reduces the tree. Finally, e is created, and the final tree, with a as parent of b, c, and e (which are considered “siblings”), as the final state.

In a simplified mode, you can just test yourself by trying to write down the final process tree, using the -F flag:

prompt> ./fork.py -s 4 -F
                           Process Tree:
                               a

Action: a forks b
Action: a forks c
Action: b forks d
Action: d EXITS
Action: a forks e

                        Final Process Tree?

Once again, you can use the -c flag to compute the answer and see if you were right (in this case, you should be, because it’s the same problem!)

Other Options

A number of other options exist with the fork simulator.

You can flip the question around with the -t flag, which allows you to view process tree states and then guess what action must have taken place.

You can use different random seeds (-s flag) or just don’t specify one to get different randomly generated sequences.

You can change what percent of actions are forks (vs exits) with the -f flag.

You can specify specific fork and exit sequences with the -A flag. For example, to have a fork b, b then fork c; c exit, and finally, a fork d, just type (we show -c here to solve the problem, too):

prompt> ./fork.py -A a+b,b+c,c-,a+d -c

                           Process Tree:
                               a

Action: a forks b
                               a
                               └── b
Action: b forks c
                               a
                               └── b
                                   └── c
Action: c EXITS
                               a
                               └── b
Action: a forks d
                               a
                               ├── b
                               └── d

You can only show the final output (and see if you can guess all the intermediates to get there) with the -F flag.

Finally, you can change the printing style of the tree with the -P flag.