Kernel

source

How Linux Works

Manage four general system area

Processes

determine which processes are allowed to use the CPU

Memory

keep track of all memory - allocated to one, shared, or free

Device drivers

kernel acts as an interface hardware and processes

• drivers are inside the kernel

System calls and support

processes may use system calls to communicate with kernel

• fork()

• exec()

• start a new process

      shell -> fork() -> shell
                      -> copy of shell -> exec(program) -> program