Which OS service is responsible for loading and executing programs?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Process execution is the OS service that loads programs into memory and runs them.

1) Relevant knowledge points and concepts
- Program vs. process: a program is passive code on disk; a process is an active execution instance with its own address space and CPU state.  
- Loader/linker: the component that places program code and data into memory and resolves addresses.  
- Process management: includes creating processes (fork/exec in UNIX), maintaining the process control block (PCB), allocating memory, and scheduling the process on the CPU.  
- System calls and scheduler: exec/fork/execve create and start execution; the scheduler dispatches the process to the CPU.

2) Step-by-step reasoning
- A program file stored on disk must be transformed into a running entity.  
- The loader reads the executable file, maps code and data into memory, sets up stack/heap, and initializes registers.  
- The OS creates a PCB with process state and resource information.  
- The scheduler places the new process on a ready queue and eventually dispatches it to the CPU for execution.  
- During runtime the OS handles context switches, interrupts, and resource allocation for the process.

3) (No numerical calculations are required for this concept question.)

4) Why the correct answer is correct
- "Process Execution" directly names the service responsible for converting a program into a running process and managing its execution lifecycle (loading, initializing, scheduling, and context management). The loader and process management subsystems perform the required tasks described in the question.

5) Why the other options are incorrect
- b. I/O Operations: handles device input/output (reading/writing disks, keyboards), not loading and starting program execution.  
- c. Communication: handles interprocess or network communication (sockets, IPC), not launching processes.  
- d. File Management: manages files and directories (creation, deletion, permissions), but does not perform the runtime loading/execution of programs.

6) Conclusion
The correct service is "a. Process Execution," which matches the provided answer.

Which OS service is responsible for loading and executing programs?Single choice

Similar Questions

Match each term below to the concept that makes sense 1: exec 2: fork 3: wait(NULL) 4: kernel mode

Which of these will result in the parent's waiting for any child process to finish and exit?

What are the PID values at lines A, B, C, D? Let parent be pid 100 and child be pid 101.

Which system call returns the process identifier of a terminated child?

Process creation and termination are handled in __________category of system call.

What is the responsibility of the operating system's process control subsystem?

Which of the following is a core OS service related to controlling the execution of processes?

What does wait system call do?

More Practical Tools for Students Powered by AI Study Helper

Homework AI Solver

Stylized AI Paper Writer

Plagiarism Checker Assistant

Citation AI Academic Writing Tool

In-Class Translation Assistant

AI Note Generator

AI Quiz Answers

Past Exam Questions from University Test Bank

Smart Practice Assistant

Adaptive Practice

Making Your Study Simpler