parent process

operating system The Unix process that created one or

more other processes.

Every process except process 0 is created when another process

executes the fork system call. The process that invoked

fork is the parent process, and the newly created process is

the child process. Every process has one parent process,

but can have many child processes.

The kernel identifies each process by its processidentifier (PID). Process 0 is a special process that is

created when the system boots; after forking a child process

(process 1), process 0 becomes the swapper process. Process

1, known as init, is the ancestor of every other process in

the system and enjoys a special relationship with them.

(1997-12-03)