On a Unix system, if five people are currently using the vi editor, how many…

2019

On a Unix system, if five people are currently using the vi editor, how many corresponding vi processes are running?

Answer: B. 5ConceptIn Unix, a process is an executing instance of a program. Each independently started invocation has its own process identity and execution state.…

  1. A.

    1

  2. B.

    5

  3. C.

    2

  4. D.

    None of these

Attempted by 174 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B

Concept

In Unix, a process is an executing instance of a program. Each independently started invocation has its own process identity and execution state.

Several processes may execute the same program code, but shared executable code does not merge those running instances into one process.

Application

  1. Each of the five people starts or uses an independent running instance of vi.

  2. Each running instance corresponds to one process, so the count is 5 × 1 = 5.

Cross-check

A process listing assigns a distinct process ID to each active vi invocation. Five active invocations therefore produce five vi process entries.

Result

The number of corresponding processes is 5.

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