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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main">process.h</span>

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<p><b>process.h</b> is the C <a href="Header_file" class="mw-redirect" title="Header file">header file</a> which contains function declarations and macros used in working with threads and processes. Most C compilers that target <a href="DOS" title="DOS">DOS</a>, <a href="Windows_3.1x" class="mw-redirect" title="Windows 3.1x">Windows 3.1x</a>, <a href="Win32" class="mw-redirect" title="Win32">Win32</a>, <a href="OS/2" title="OS/2">OS/2</a>, Novell NetWare or <a href="DOS_extender" title="DOS extender">DOS extenders</a> supply this header and the library functions in their C library. Neither the header file nor most of the functions are defined by either the <a href="ANSI_C" title="ANSI C">ANSI/ISO C</a> standard or by <a href="POSIX" title="POSIX">POSIX</a>.

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2></div>

<p>Microsoft's version of the file dates back to at least 1985, according to its copyright statement.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> An early reference to the file was in a post on the net.micro.pc usenet on Oct-26-1986.<sup id="cite_ref-msft_process.h_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-msft_process.h-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The compiler used was <a href="Microsoft_C_compiler" class="mw-redirect" title="Microsoft C compiler">Microsoft C compiler</a> version 3.0.

The <a href="Lattice_C" title="Lattice C">Lattice C</a> compiler version 3.30 (Aug-24-1988) did not have such a header file, but offered similar functions.

Borland provided the header in their <a href="Turbo_C" title="Turbo C">Turbo C</a> compiler version 2.01.

The C Ware-Personal C compiler version 1.2c (June 1989) had only the ANSI headers.

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Functions">Functions</h2></div>

<th>Description</th>

<th>Notes

</th></tr>

<tr>

<td><code><a href="Exec_(operating_system)" class="mw-redirect" title="Exec (operating system)">execl, execle, execlp, execlpe</a></code></td>

<td>load and <a href="Execution_(computers)" class="mw-redirect" title="Execution (computers)">execute</a> a new child process by placing it in memory previously occupied by the parent process. Parameters are passed individually.</td>

<td>DOS, Win, OS/2, POSIX

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code><a href="Exec_(operating_system)" class="mw-redirect" title="Exec (operating system)">execv, execve, execvp, execvpe</a></code></td>

<td>load and execute a new child process by placing it in memory previously occupied by the parent process. Parameters are passed as an array of pointers.</td>

<td>DOS, Win, OS/2, POSIX

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code><a href="Spawn_(computing)" title="Spawn (computing)">spawnl, spawnle, spawnlp, spawnlpe</a></code></td>

<td>load and execute a new child process. Parameters are passed individually.</td>

<td>DOS, Win, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code><a href="Spawn_(computing)" title="Spawn (computing)">spawnv, spawnve, spawnvp, spawnvpe</a></code></td>

<td>load and execute a new child process. Parameters are passed as an array of pointers.</td>

<td>DOS, Win, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code>beginthread, beginthreadNT</code></td>

<td>creates a new thread of execution within the current process.</td>

<td>Win, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code>endthread</code></td>

<td>terminates a thread created by <code>beginthread</code>.</td>

<td>Win, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code><a href="Getpid" class="mw-redirect" title="Getpid">getpid</a></code></td>

<td>returns the <a href="Process_identifier" title="Process identifier">process identifier</a>.</td>

<td>DOS, Win, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code>cexit</code></td>

<td>restore interrupt vectors altered by the startup code.</td>

<td>DOS, Win, OS/2

</td></tr>

</tbody></table>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Constants">Constants</h2></div>

<th>Description</th>

<th>Notes</th>

<th>OS

</th></tr>

<tr>

<td>Suspends parent process until the child process has finished executing.</td>

<td>synchronous spawn.</td>

<td>MS-DOS, Win32, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code>_P_NOWAIT, _P_NOWAITO</code></td>

<td>Continues to execute calling process concurrently with new process.</td>

<td>asynchronous spawn.</td>

<td>Win32, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code>_P_OVERLAY</code></td>

<td>Overlays parent process with child, which destroys the parent.</td>

<td>has the same effect as the <code>exec*</code> functions.</td>

<td>MS-DOS, Win32, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code>_P_DETACH</code></td>

<td>The child is run in background without access to the console or keyboard.</td>

<td>Calls to <code>_cwait</code> upon the new process will fail. Asynchronous spawn.</td>

<td>Win32, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code>_WAIT_CHILD</code></td>

<td>used as <code>cwait</code> action.</td>

<td>Obsolete on Win32.</td>

<td>MS-DOS, OS/2

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><code>_WAIT_GRANDCHILD</code></td>

<td>used as <code>cwait</code> action.</td>

<td>Obsolete on Win32.</td>

<td>MS-DOS, OS/2

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Implementations">Implementations</h2></div>

<p>Given the fact there is no standard on which to base the implementation, the functions declared by process.h differ, depending on the compiler in use. Below is a list of compilers which provide process.h.

</p>

<ul><li>DJGPP<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-djgpp_process.h_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-djgpp_process.h-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li>OpenWatcom,<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-watcom_clib_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-watcom_clib-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li>Digital Mars<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-mars_process.h_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-mars_process.h-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li>MinGW<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li>Microsoft Visual C++<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li>Borland Turbo C, 2.0 and later<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-turboc_2.0_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-turboc_2.0-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li>QNX Neutrino QCC 6.x<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Differences">Differences</h2></div>

<p>Another aspect that might vary is the combined length of exec* and spawn* parameters.

</p>

<ul><li>Delorie DJGPP: does not have such a limit.<sup id="cite_ref-djgpp_spawn_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-djgpp_spawn-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li>Digital Mars: the maximum is 128 bytes; nothing is stated about the ending '\0' character.</li>

<li>Microsoft cl: the argument list for the new process must not exceed 1024 bytes.<sup id="cite_ref-msdn_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-msdn-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">"Copyright 1985–1989, Microsoft Corporation", in <a href="QuickC" title="QuickC">QuickC</a> version 2.00 process.h file</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-msft_process.h-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-msft_process.h_2-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://groups-beta.google.com/group/net.micro.pc/browse_frm/thread/b85ef1946a4915e6/1154bb52be4d5854?lnk=st&q=%22process%5C.h%22&rnum=23#1154bb52be4d5854">Is my floppy diskette formated?</a>, groups-beta.google.com</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/">Delorie.com</a></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-djgpp_process.h-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-djgpp_process.h_4-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/incs/process.h">DJGPP process.h</a>, delorie.com</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.openwatcom.org/index.php/Main_Page">Openwatcom.org</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150317091931/http://www.openwatcom.org/index.php/Main_Page">Archived</a> 2015-03-17 at the <a href="Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-watcom_clib-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-watcom_clib_6-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.openwatcom.org/ftp/manuals/clib.pdf">OpenWatcom clib</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061011042009/http://www.openwatcom.org/ftp/manuals/clib.pdf">Archived</a> 2006-10-11 at the <a href="Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, openwatcom.org</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.digitalmars.com/">DigitalMars.com</a></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-mars_process.h-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-mars_process.h_8-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.digitalmars.com/rtl/process.html">Digital Mars process.h</a>, digitalmars.com</span>

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<li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.mingw.org/">MinGW.org</a></span>

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</style><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070707082306/http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/default.aspx">"MSDN.Microsoft.com"</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/default.aspx">the original</a> on 2007-07-07<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2007-01-15</span></span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121105211827/http://www.borland.com/">"Borland.com"</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.borland.com/">the original</a> on 2012-11-05<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2007-01-15</span></span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-turboc_2.0-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-turboc_2.0_12-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.today/20110710191522/http://dn.codegear.com/article/20841Turbo">C version 2.01</a>, dn.codegear.com</span>

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<li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/">CS.Virginia.edu</a></span>

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<li id="cite_note-djgpp_spawn-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-djgpp_spawn_15-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/libc/libc_736.html">DJGPP spawn*</a>, delorie.com</span>

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<li id="cite_note-msdn-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-msdn_16-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vccore98/HTML/_crt_system.2c_._wsystem.asp">Microsoft MSDN</a>, msdn.microsoft.com</span>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.digitalmars.com/rtl/process.html#_exec">Digital Mars _exec reference</a></li></ul></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

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