Question

When using a fork() function in a program which is running in a Unix like operating system (i.e MINIX 3) does it create a number of separate processes which are handled independently and can therefore finish ahead of each other (which is actually what I want) or will it create a series of sequential processes which only finish in the order they were created.

Here is the code I’m using to fork()

    for(j = 0; j < num_fork_loops;) {
       if (fork() < 0) {
          printf("Fork has failed\n");
          exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
       }
       j++;
     }

Thanks for your time

Answer 1

fork() returns immediately, twice. All processes are normal, running processes, which are scheduled separately by the OS. Typically they will all run simultaneously.