Process management

[nysus]

Fellow Monks:

I'm looking for some general direction on where I can learn more about "process management" (forking, etc.). The best I can gather is that "process management" is just another term for "multitasking" in a UNIX enviornment. I've been reading Chapter 14 of "Learning Perl" and merlyn recommends I "should probably study up on the fork (2) and exec (2) system calls in a traditional UNIX text." But rather than running out and buying a UNIX book, I'd rather find a beginner's guide to process management. Does anyone know of such a beast on the web somewhere? I just want to know some real basic stuff to help me conceptualize it better:

What precisely is process management?
Why would you use it?
What are some common uses for it in Perl?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

$PM = "Perl Monk's";
$MCF = "Most Clueless Friar";
$nysus = $PM . $MCF;

[jeffa]

You should also check out Network Programming with Perl. The first two chapters are devoted to exactly what you need. Then, after you master those concepts, you've got a whole book on applying that knowledge to networking. Awesome book!

Process management is the fancy name for getting programs to 'talk' to each other, keeping track of what a program is doing, keeping track of the children spawned, etc. Very important stuff.

Jeff

R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--
L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--

[nysus]

Sounds like a cool book. A little pricey but it looks like it would help me learn a lot of things that are currently shrouded in mystery for me. Thanks.

$PM = "Perl Monk's";
$MCF = "Most Clueless Friar";
$nysus = $PM . $MCF;

[suaveant]

Here is a perl tutorial from the Far More Than You Ever Wanted To Know chronicles on inter-process communication, which you will probably want as well... tells you some of process management, and a bunch on talking to processes.
                - Ant

[tye]

Well, the term "process management" may be a bit ambiguous, but I normally consider that term to refer to managing the processes and procedures via which you produce your product (such as software). It covers things like source code version control, testing, creating a new release, creating a patch, etc.

I mention this just in case you were assigned to read up on "process management" and mistakenly assumed that "process" referred to the thing that is created by fork.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

[nysus]

No, I'm taling about "forking", etc. Thanks anyway.

$PM = "Perl Monk's";
$MCF = "Most Clueless Friar";
$nysus = $PM . $MCF;