Hi.


I've just come across process groups, and thougth it might be used for renice-ing a group of processes.
I'm not familiar with the concept, but from what I've read one can group processes together and renice/signal them as one entity.

So, does anyone know how one can create/manipulate process groups?

Also, please point me to any (good) relevant documentation on the subject.


Regards,
kenneho

Consider the bash-shell notion of "a job." (This is something that you start "in the background" and basically-ignore until it's finished.)

That "job" might well consist of several programs. (Many things in Unix/Linux land are performed by the cooperative efforts of several programs running simultaneously.) So, to handle this, we have "process groups." Every process that this job consists-of, or that this job might at any time create, belongs to that "group." This is what enables you to "kill 'the job,'" without having to consider just how-many processes you actually might be killing. Likewise, if you change the execution-priority of 'the job,' this is how Linux knows which process(es) to adjust.

Claro?