WHAT'S THE USE OF PROCESS STACK IN OPERATING SYSTEM?

Question

WHAT'S THE USE OF PROCESS STACK IN OPERATING SYSTEM?

Answer 1

Hello

Always if you give more info about what you really want, people can help better.



I assume you are referring to process stack.



Whenever you call a function or a block gets activated a new structure known as activation or stack frame is created from the stack area. Which maintains stack pointer, return address vice versa. All the arguments which are passed and local variables in the function are referred with respect to frame pointer.

WHen you return from the function, the space of stack frame is released from the stack. This is true with the recursive functions also.



I advise you go through either of the following books

1. C and Data Structures: A snap shot oriented treatise using live engineering examples, NB Venkateswarlu & EV Prasad, S Chand & Co



2. Linux Programming Tools Unveiled, NB Venkateswarlu, BS Publications



3. Compiler Construction, Kenneth Louden, Galgotia



Cheers

NB Venkateswarlu

www.ritchcenter.com

Answer 2

Basically stack follows LIFO (Last In First Out) System. If several processes are running at a time in the system, O/S uses some its systems like Stack, Queue etc. In stack system OS executes the processes which are last came in to the process block.



Stack is one of the system that OS uses. There is no particular use. Just it executes the processes in LIFO Method.

Answer 3

If you want to get a quick edge, there are several things that you can start which will help you cascade into creating your own. They are all Linux based and will guide you to the more intense tasks as you feel comfortable with what you have accomplished. It seems that you have already dabbled in Linux, but now its time to take it to the next level. You mentioned Ubuntu, which is a good starter platform, but doesn't really require you to build main level software. So if you feel comfortable with the command line, then you might want to give the Gentoo a chance. This will help you really understand what is going on in a true Linux environment where you must build software from source code. After you have pretty much mastered building your own Gentoo system and are extremely comfortable with the command line, the next step is to do the Linux From Scratch (LFS). This is basically a book that will guide you through building a Linux system from complete ground. Note that Linux From Scratch is not designed for you to create massively distributed Linux systems, but to learn how Linux truly works on a low software level. This is maybe as possible as you want to go which is why there is so much Linux/Windows/Mac out there. The next level below that is kernel development which ask you to interact directly with hardware. If you have the time and patience, good, but often times this is extremely time consuming which is why there are sole teams dedicated to the development of just kernels. Again, I'd probably work down to a LFS, but not much lower. But I like spending my time on software development, not hardware/software interaction since I'm not a hard computer scientist. And remember, LFS doesn't provide any package management, meaning you will have to resolve all your dependencies yourself which may take a while for certain software.

Answer 4

To improve the efficiency and speed of the O/S and processor we need to use process stack in O/S.