Consider the following segment of codes related to process creation. How many…

fork() splits the process that calls it into two independent processes — the original process and a new copy — and both processes resume execution from the very next statement onward. If a program executes fork() n times in succession with no condition on its return value, every process alive at each call also executes that same call, so the total number of processes doubles at each of the n calls, giving 2n processes overall. Every one of those processes then independently executes any statement that follows — including a printf() — exactly once.

1. Before the first fork(): exactly 1 process is running.

2. First fork() executes: the 1 running process becomes 2 processes — the original process and a new copy.

3. Second fork() executes: each of the 2 currently running processes calls fork() independently, so 2 processes become 4.

4. Third fork() executes: each of the 4 currently running processes calls fork() independently, so 4 processes become 8.

5. All 8 processes then reach the printf("child process created") statement — it has no condition on the fork() return value, so every one of the 8 processes executes it exactly once.

As an independent check: counting only the processes newly spawned by the three fork() calls gives 23 − 1 = 7 new child processes; adding back the single original process, which also survives and reaches the printf() statement, gives 7 + 1 = 8 processes in total — the same count reached by direct doubling above.

Therefore, the message “child process created” is printed 8 times in total.