What is process termination?

Introduction

Process termination is the formal process of stopping, blocking, or turning off a particular process because of problems, hence ceasing its ongoing operational use and implementation. It denotes the process is stopped, either indefinitely or for a predetermined amount of time, until the problems are satisfactorily fixed. If the process ends abruptly, it can be viewed as having either succeeded or failed depending on whether the original objectives and purpose were met and further action is no longer necessary.

The process termination procedure is applied in many management domains. For instance, company management chooses the steps to take in order to prevent business processes from existing permanently or temporarily based on the status of intended goals and unresolved difficulties. It refers to a procedure used in project management to close out project phases and activities formally.

Types of process termination

Two different kinds of process termination exist. These kinds consist of:

Normal. A procedure that is terminated typically indicates that it has met expectations and desired goals, making continued implementation impractical.

Abnormal. When a process is abnormally stopped or stalled for an extended length of time, it indicates that there are issues with the process or any of its components, and continued implementation is not allowed until the issues are satisfactorily resolved.

Reasons for Process Termination

Normal Completion: An operating system service call can be executed by a process to finish its execution normally.

Unavailability of the Required Memory: When the system cannot supply the memory needed—which is greater than the memory that the system really contains—a process is ended.

Exceed in the Execution Time Limit: Process termination also happens when the process takes much longer to complete than the allotted amount of time. This can be attributed to the following scenarios:

• Total elapsed time
• Time to execute.
• The time interval since the last input is provided by the Total elapsed time to execute the user. This usually occurs in the case of interactive processes.

Violating Memory Access Limits: Even when a process tries to access a memory location that is prohibited from being accessed, it may be terminated.

Protection Error: When a process tries to use a resource (such as a file) to which access is prohibited or uses it improperly—for example, by writing to a read-only file—a protection error takes place.

Arithmetic Error: Process termination can also result from some mathematical errors, including division by zero or storing a value larger than the hardware can handle.

Input/Output Failure: It describes an error that arises from an input/output operation, such as failing a read or write operation even after a predetermined number of attempts or not being able to locate a file.

Misuse of Data: Data misuse, such as using incorrect or uninitialized data, also ends the process.

Exceeding the Waiting Time Limit: The process also ends when the waiting period for an event is exceeded.

Invalid Instruction Execution: A process gets terminated when it attempts to carry out a command that isn't there.

Using a Privileged Instruction: When a process tries to use an operating system instruction, it is stopped from continuing.

Interference by an Operating System or an Operator: Process termination may occur when an operating system or operator tampers with the process's execution. Deadlocks are one instance of this kind of situation.

Termination of Parent Process: All of a parent process's child processes halt their execution when the parent process ends.

Request from a Parent Process: Any time a child process is executed, the parent process has the authority to end the process.

Causes for termination

The following are the other causes of termination:

• Time slot expired: A process is terminated from its running state if its execution is not finished within the allotted period. The next task in the ready queue is selected by the CPU to be executed.
• Memory bound violation: if the amount of memory needed by a process exceeds what is available.
• I/O failure: A waiting state is entered by the process when the operating system does not provide an I/O device.
• Process request: If the kid process is asked about termination by the parent process.
• Invalid instruction

Conclusion

An important part of computing is process termination, which is the process of stopping a program or application from running. In this phase, the resources allocated to the process are reclaimed, thereby guaranteeing effective system utilization. Programs can terminate users willingly or involuntarily as a result of mistakes or system regulations. In order to release memory, close files, and preserve system stability, proper termination is essential. Operating systems use a variety of methods, including exit codes, to communicate information regarding the status of termination. In general, resource management and system reliability depend on efficient process termination.