< operating system > The Unix process that created one or more other processes.
Every process except process 0 is created when another process executes the fork system call . The process that invoked fork is the parent process, and the newly created process is the child process . Every process has one parent process, but can have many child processes.
The kernel identifies each process by its process identifier (PID). Process 0 is a special process that is created when the system boots; after forking a child process (process 1), process 0 becomes the swapper process. Process 1, known as init , is the ancestor of every other process in the system and enjoys a special relationship with them.
(1997-12-03)