---
id: t70u
title: Processes
tags: [operating-systems]
created: Friday, June 21, 2024
---

# Processes

Programs are sequences of machine instructions stored in a file. However they do
not work by themselves. Something needs to load the file's intructions into
memory and direct the CPU to run the program. The OS does this via processes.

A process **is a running instance of a given program**. It can be thought of as
a container in which a program runs. This container includes:

- a copy of the program code loaded into memory
- a memory address
- other information about the state of the process

## Related notes