term% cat index.txt FORK(2) System Calls Manual FORK(2)
NAME
fork - spawn new process
SYNOPSIS
fork()
DESCRIPTION
Fork is the only way new processes are created. The new process's core
image is a copy of that of the caller of fork. The only distinction is
that the value returned in the old (parent) process is the process ID
of the new (child) process, while the value returned in the child is 0.
Process ID's range from 1 to 30,000. The process ID is used by
wait(2).
Files open before the fork are shared, and have a common read-write
pointer. In particular, this is the way that standard input and output
files are passed and also how pipes are set up.
SEE ALSO
wait(2), exec(2)
DIAGNOSTICS
Returns -1 and fails to create a process if: there is inadequate swap
space, the user is not super-user and has too many processes, or the
system's process table is full. Only the super-user can take the last
process-table slot.
FORK(2)