child process

operating system A process created by another process (the

parent process). Each process may create many child

processes but will have only one parent process, except for

the very first process which has no parent. The first

process, called init in Unix, is started by the kernel

at boot time and never terminates. A child process inherits

most of its attributes, such as open files, from its parent.

In fact in Unix, a child process is created (using fork) as

a copy of the parent. The chid process can then overlay

itself with a different program (using exec) as required.

(1997-11-22)