Overlay (operating system)

For the division of a single program to reduce memory requirements, see Overlay (programming).

In operating systems, an overlay is when a process replaces itself with the code of another program. On Unix-like systems, this is accomplished with the exec() system call.

In Unix, the only way to run new programs is to fork the running process, and then overlay the new program on top of the child. This is known as the fork-exec technique.

See also

• Chain loading

This operating system-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Process (computing) Operating system stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат? Elaeatis Ban Jelačić Square Look at other dictionaries: Fork (operating system) — In computing, when a process forks, it creates a copy of itself, which is called a child process. The original process is then called the parent process . More generally, a fork in a multithreading environment means that a thread of execution is… …   Wikipedia Exec (operating system) — The exec functions of Unix like operating systems are a collection of functions that causes the running process to be completely replaced by the program passed as argument to the function. As a new process is not created, the process ID (PID)… …   Wikipedia Overlay — may refer to: Overlay architecture, term used to describe ‘event architecture’ and relates to the temporary elements that supplement existing buildings and infrastructure to enable the operation of major sporting events or festivals. Overlay… …   Wikipedia Overlay (programming) — This article is about dividing a program up to reduce memory requirements. For the complete replacement of a process, see Overlay (operating system). In a general computing sense, overlaying means replacement of a block of stored instructions or… …   Wikipedia Hardware overlay — Hardware overlay, a type of video overlay, is a method of rendering an image to a display screen with a dedicated memory buffer inside computer video hardware, to display a fast moving video image such as a computer game, a DVD, or the signal… …   Wikipedia History of IBM mainframe operating systems — The history of operating systems running on IBM mainframes is a notable chapter of history of mainframe operating systems, because of IBM s long standing position as the world s largest hardware supplier of mainframe computers.Arguably the… …   Wikipedia IBM System/360 — The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a mainframe computer system family announced by IBM on April 7, 1964. It was the first family of computers making a clear distinction between architecture and implementation, allowing IBM to release a suite of… …   Wikipedia Global Positioning System — GPS redirects here. For other uses, see GPS (disambiguation). Geodesy Fundamentals …   Wikipedia Digital Multiplex System — A DMS 10 used as a lab trainer at Southeast Missouri State University …   Wikipedia Fault-tolerant system — This article contains specific implementations of fault tolerant systems. For general theory, see fault tolerant design. Fault tolerance or graceful degradation is the property that enables a system (often computer based) to continue operating… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”