Linux Kernel User-space Process - Introduction, struct task_struct, virtual memory, IPC, etcLinux Kernel User-space Process - Introduction, struct task_struct, virtual memory, IPC, etc

Refer:
Linux Kernel Source:
struct task_struct data-structure ↗
Task state bitmask flags – tsk->state ↗
struct task_struct instance example1: TASK_RUNNING, TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE, TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE, TASK_STOPPED ↗
struct task_struct instance example2: struct task_struct *p – p->state == TASK_RUNNING ↗

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Linux Process task state ↗
Linux Kernel sub-systems ↗
Linux system architecture ↗
Linux system architecture Image2 ↗
Java JVM architecture ↗
Kernel type: Monolithic-Kernel, Micro-Kernel and Hybrid-Kernel examples ↗
Android OS on top of Linux Kernel (OS) – Andrid architecture ↗

Here is the struct task_struct data-structure data-structure (/include/linux/sched.h) from the Kernel-source version 4.14 for quick reference:

struct task_struct {
#ifdef CONFIG_THREAD_INFO_IN_TASK
	/*
	 * For reasons of header soup (see current_thread_info()), this
	 * must be the first element of task_struct.
	 */
	struct thread_info		thread_info;
#endif
	/* -1 unrunnable, 0 runnable, >0 stopped: */
	volatile long			state;

	/*
	 * This begins the randomizable portion of task_struct. Only
	 * scheduling-critical items should be added above here.
	 */
	randomized_struct_fields_start

	void				*stack;
	atomic_t			usage;
	/* Per task flags (PF_*), defined further below: */
	unsigned int			flags;
	unsigned int			ptrace;

#ifdef CONFIG_SMP
	struct llist_node		wake_entry;
	int				on_cpu;
#ifdef CONFIG_THREAD_INFO_IN_TASK
	/* Current CPU: */
	unsigned int			cpu;
#endif
	unsigned int			wakee_flips;
	unsigned long			wakee_flip_decay_ts;
	struct task_struct		*last_wakee;

	int				wake_cpu;
#endif
	int				on_rq;

	int				prio;
	int				static_prio;
	int				normal_prio;
	unsigned int			rt_priority;

	const struct sched_class	*sched_class;
	struct sched_entity		se;
	struct sched_rt_entity		rt;
#ifdef CONFIG_CGROUP_SCHED
	struct task_group		*sched_task_group;
#endif
	struct sched_dl_entity		dl;

#ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT_NOTIFIERS
	/* List of struct preempt_notifier: */
	struct hlist_head		preempt_notifiers;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IO_TRACE
	unsigned int			btrace_seq;
#endif

	unsigned int			policy;
	int				nr_cpus_allowed;
	cpumask_t			cpus_allowed;

#ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT_RCU
	int				rcu_read_lock_nesting;
	union rcu_special		rcu_read_unlock_special;
	struct list_head		rcu_node_entry;
	struct rcu_node			*rcu_blocked_node;
#endif /* #ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT_RCU */

#ifdef CONFIG_TASKS_RCU
	unsigned long			rcu_tasks_nvcsw;
	u8				rcu_tasks_holdout;
	u8				rcu_tasks_idx;
	int				rcu_tasks_idle_cpu;
	struct list_head		rcu_tasks_holdout_list;
#endif /* #ifdef CONFIG_TASKS_RCU */

	struct sched_info		sched_info;

	struct list_head		tasks;
#ifdef CONFIG_SMP
	struct plist_node		pushable_tasks;
	struct rb_node			pushable_dl_tasks;
#endif

	struct mm_struct		*mm;
	struct mm_struct		*active_mm;

	/* Per-thread vma caching: */
	struct vmacache			vmacache;

#ifdef SPLIT_RSS_COUNTING
	struct task_rss_stat		rss_stat;
#endif
	int				exit_state;
	int				exit_code;
	int				exit_signal;
	/* The signal sent when the parent dies: */
	int				pdeath_signal;
	/* JOBCTL_*, siglock protected: */
	unsigned long			jobctl;

	/* Used for emulating ABI behavior of previous Linux versions: */
	unsigned int			personality;

	/* Scheduler bits, serialized by scheduler locks: */
	unsigned			sched_reset_on_fork:1;
	unsigned			sched_contributes_to_load:1;
	unsigned			sched_migrated:1;
	unsigned			sched_remote_wakeup:1;
	/* Force alignment to the next boundary: */
	unsigned			:0;

	/* Unserialized, strictly 'current' */

	/* Bit to tell LSMs we're in execve(): */
	unsigned			in_execve:1;
	unsigned			in_iowait:1;
#ifndef TIF_RESTORE_SIGMASK
	unsigned			restore_sigmask:1;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
	unsigned			memcg_may_oom:1;
#ifndef CONFIG_SLOB
	unsigned			memcg_kmem_skip_account:1;
#endif
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_COMPAT_BRK
	unsigned			brk_randomized:1;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_CGROUPS
	/* disallow userland-initiated cgroup migration */
	unsigned			no_cgroup_migration:1;
#endif

	unsigned long			atomic_flags; /* Flags requiring atomic access. */

	struct restart_block		restart_block;

	pid_t				pid;
	pid_t				tgid;

#ifdef CONFIG_CC_STACKPROTECTOR
	/* Canary value for the -fstack-protector GCC feature: */
	unsigned long			stack_canary;
#endif
	/*
	 * Pointers to the (original) parent process, youngest child, younger sibling,
	 * older sibling, respectively.  (p->father can be replaced with
	 * p->real_parent->pid)
	 */

	/* Real parent process: */
	struct task_struct __rcu	*real_parent;

	/* Recipient of SIGCHLD, wait4() reports: */
	struct task_struct __rcu	*parent;

	/*
	 * Children/sibling form the list of natural children:
	 */
	struct list_head		children;
	struct list_head		sibling;
	struct task_struct		*group_leader;

	/*
	 * 'ptraced' is the list of tasks this task is using ptrace() on.
	 *
	 * This includes both natural children and PTRACE_ATTACH targets.
	 * 'ptrace_entry' is this task's link on the p->parent->ptraced list.
	 */
	struct list_head		ptraced;
	struct list_head		ptrace_entry;

	/* PID/PID hash table linkage. */
	struct pid_link			pids[PIDTYPE_MAX];
	struct list_head		thread_group;
	struct list_head		thread_node;

	struct completion		*vfork_done;

	/* CLONE_CHILD_SETTID: */
	int __user			*set_child_tid;

	/* CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID: */
	int __user			*clear_child_tid;

	u64				utime;
	u64				stime;
#ifdef CONFIG_ARCH_HAS_SCALED_CPUTIME
	u64				utimescaled;
	u64				stimescaled;
#endif
	u64				gtime;
	struct prev_cputime		prev_cputime;
#ifdef CONFIG_VIRT_CPU_ACCOUNTING_GEN
	struct vtime			vtime;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL
	atomic_t			tick_dep_mask;
#endif
	/* Context switch counts: */
	unsigned long			nvcsw;
	unsigned long			nivcsw;

	/* Monotonic time in nsecs: */
	u64				start_time;

	/* Boot based time in nsecs: */
	u64				real_start_time;

	/* MM fault and swap info: this can arguably be seen as either mm-specific or thread-specific: */
	unsigned long			min_flt;
	unsigned long			maj_flt;

#ifdef CONFIG_POSIX_TIMERS
	struct task_cputime		cputime_expires;
	struct list_head		cpu_timers[3];
#endif

	/* Process credentials: */

	/* Tracer's credentials at attach: */
	const struct cred __rcu		*ptracer_cred;

	/* Objective and real subjective task credentials (COW): */
	const struct cred __rcu		*real_cred;

	/* Effective (overridable) subjective task credentials (COW): */
	const struct cred __rcu		*cred;

	/*
	 * executable name, excluding path.
	 *
	 * - normally initialized setup_new_exec()
	 * - access it with [gs]et_task_comm()
	 * - lock it with task_lock()
	 */
	char				comm[TASK_COMM_LEN];

	struct nameidata		*nameidata;

#ifdef CONFIG_SYSVIPC
	struct sysv_sem			sysvsem;
	struct sysv_shm			sysvshm;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_DETECT_HUNG_TASK
	unsigned long			last_switch_count;
#endif
	/* Filesystem information: */
	struct fs_struct		*fs;

	/* Open file information: */
	struct files_struct		*files;

	/* Namespaces: */
	struct nsproxy			*nsproxy;

	/* Signal handlers: */
	struct signal_struct		*signal;
	struct sighand_struct		*sighand;
	sigset_t			blocked;
	sigset_t			real_blocked;
	/* Restored if set_restore_sigmask() was used: */
	sigset_t			saved_sigmask;
	struct sigpending		pending;
	unsigned long			sas_ss_sp;
	size_t				sas_ss_size;
	unsigned int			sas_ss_flags;

	struct callback_head		*task_works;

	struct audit_context		*audit_context;
#ifdef CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL
	kuid_t				loginuid;
	unsigned int			sessionid;
#endif
	struct seccomp			seccomp;

	/* Thread group tracking: */
	u32				parent_exec_id;
	u32				self_exec_id;

	/* Protection against (de-)allocation: mm, files, fs, tty, keyrings, mems_allowed, mempolicy: */
	spinlock_t			alloc_lock;

	/* Protection of the PI data structures: */
	raw_spinlock_t			pi_lock;

	struct wake_q_node		wake_q;

#ifdef CONFIG_RT_MUTEXES
	/* PI waiters blocked on a rt_mutex held by this task: */
	struct rb_root_cached		pi_waiters;
	/* Updated under owner's pi_lock and rq lock */
	struct task_struct		*pi_top_task;
	/* Deadlock detection and priority inheritance handling: */
	struct rt_mutex_waiter		*pi_blocked_on;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES
	/* Mutex deadlock detection: */
	struct mutex_waiter		*blocked_on;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_TRACE_IRQFLAGS
	unsigned int			irq_events;
	unsigned long			hardirq_enable_ip;
	unsigned long			hardirq_disable_ip;
	unsigned int			hardirq_enable_event;
	unsigned int			hardirq_disable_event;
	int				hardirqs_enabled;
	int				hardirq_context;
	unsigned long			softirq_disable_ip;
	unsigned long			softirq_enable_ip;
	unsigned int			softirq_disable_event;
	unsigned int			softirq_enable_event;
	int				softirqs_enabled;
	int				softirq_context;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_LOCKDEP
# define MAX_LOCK_DEPTH			48UL
	u64				curr_chain_key;
	int				lockdep_depth;
	unsigned int			lockdep_recursion;
	struct held_lock		held_locks[MAX_LOCK_DEPTH];
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_LOCKDEP_CROSSRELEASE
#define MAX_XHLOCKS_NR 64UL
	struct hist_lock *xhlocks; /* Crossrelease history locks */
	unsigned int xhlock_idx;
	/* For restoring at history boundaries */
	unsigned int xhlock_idx_hist[XHLOCK_CTX_NR];
	unsigned int hist_id;
	/* For overwrite check at each context exit */
	unsigned int hist_id_save[XHLOCK_CTX_NR];
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_UBSAN
	unsigned int			in_ubsan;
#endif

	/* Journalling filesystem info: */
	void				*journal_info;

	/* Stacked block device info: */
	struct bio_list			*bio_list;

#ifdef CONFIG_BLOCK
	/* Stack plugging: */
	struct blk_plug			*plug;
#endif

	/* VM state: */
	struct reclaim_state		*reclaim_state;

	struct backing_dev_info		*backing_dev_info;

	struct io_context		*io_context;

	/* Ptrace state: */
	unsigned long			ptrace_message;
	siginfo_t			*last_siginfo;

	struct task_io_accounting	ioac;
#ifdef CONFIG_TASK_XACCT
	/* Accumulated RSS usage: */
	u64				acct_rss_mem1;
	/* Accumulated virtual memory usage: */
	u64				acct_vm_mem1;
	/* stime + utime since last update: */
	u64				acct_timexpd;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_CPUSETS
	/* Protected by ->alloc_lock: */
	nodemask_t			mems_allowed;
	/* Seqence number to catch updates: */
	seqcount_t			mems_allowed_seq;
	int				cpuset_mem_spread_rotor;
	int				cpuset_slab_spread_rotor;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_CGROUPS
	/* Control Group info protected by css_set_lock: */
	struct css_set __rcu		*cgroups;
	/* cg_list protected by css_set_lock and tsk->alloc_lock: */
	struct list_head		cg_list;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_INTEL_RDT
	u32				closid;
	u32				rmid;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_FUTEX
	struct robust_list_head __user	*robust_list;
#ifdef CONFIG_COMPAT
	struct compat_robust_list_head __user *compat_robust_list;
#endif
	struct list_head		pi_state_list;
	struct futex_pi_state		*pi_state_cache;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_PERF_EVENTS
	struct perf_event_context	*perf_event_ctxp[perf_nr_task_contexts];
	struct mutex			perf_event_mutex;
	struct list_head		perf_event_list;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT
	unsigned long			preempt_disable_ip;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_NUMA
	/* Protected by alloc_lock: */
	struct mempolicy		*mempolicy;
	short				il_prev;
	short				pref_node_fork;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_NUMA_BALANCING
	int				numa_scan_seq;
	unsigned int			numa_scan_period;
	unsigned int			numa_scan_period_max;
	int				numa_preferred_nid;
	unsigned long			numa_migrate_retry;
	/* Migration stamp: */
	u64				node_stamp;
	u64				last_task_numa_placement;
	u64				last_sum_exec_runtime;
	struct callback_head		numa_work;

	struct list_head		numa_entry;
	struct numa_group		*numa_group;

	/*
	 * numa_faults is an array split into four regions:
	 * faults_memory, faults_cpu, faults_memory_buffer, faults_cpu_buffer
	 * in this precise order.
	 *
	 * faults_memory: Exponential decaying average of faults on a per-node
	 * basis. Scheduling placement decisions are made based on these
	 * counts. The values remain static for the duration of a PTE scan.
	 * faults_cpu: Track the nodes the process was running on when a NUMA
	 * hinting fault was incurred.
	 * faults_memory_buffer and faults_cpu_buffer: Record faults per node
	 * during the current scan window. When the scan completes, the counts
	 * in faults_memory and faults_cpu decay and these values are copied.
	 */
	unsigned long			*numa_faults;
	unsigned long			total_numa_faults;

	/*
	 * numa_faults_locality tracks if faults recorded during the last
	 * scan window were remote/local or failed to migrate. The task scan
	 * period is adapted based on the locality of the faults with different
	 * weights depending on whether they were shared or private faults
	 */
	unsigned long			numa_faults_locality[3];

	unsigned long			numa_pages_migrated;
#endif /* CONFIG_NUMA_BALANCING */

	struct tlbflush_unmap_batch	tlb_ubc;

	struct rcu_head			rcu;

	/* Cache last used pipe for splice(): */
	struct pipe_inode_info		*splice_pipe;

	struct page_frag		task_frag;

#ifdef CONFIG_TASK_DELAY_ACCT
	struct task_delay_info		*delays;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_FAULT_INJECTION
	int				make_it_fail;
	unsigned int			fail_nth;
#endif
	/*
	 * When (nr_dirtied >= nr_dirtied_pause), it's time to call
	 * balance_dirty_pages() for a dirty throttling pause:
	 */
	int				nr_dirtied;
	int				nr_dirtied_pause;
	/* Start of a write-and-pause period: */
	unsigned long			dirty_paused_when;

#ifdef CONFIG_LATENCYTOP
	int				latency_record_count;
	struct latency_record		latency_record[LT_SAVECOUNT];
#endif
	/*
	 * Time slack values; these are used to round up poll() and
	 * select() etc timeout values. These are in nanoseconds.
	 */
	u64				timer_slack_ns;
	u64				default_timer_slack_ns;

#ifdef CONFIG_KASAN
	unsigned int			kasan_depth;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_FUNCTION_GRAPH_TRACER
	/* Index of current stored address in ret_stack: */
	int				curr_ret_stack;

	/* Stack of return addresses for return function tracing: */
	struct ftrace_ret_stack		*ret_stack;

	/* Timestamp for last schedule: */
	unsigned long long		ftrace_timestamp;

	/*
	 * Number of functions that haven't been traced
	 * because of depth overrun:
	 */
	atomic_t			trace_overrun;

	/* Pause tracing: */
	atomic_t			tracing_graph_pause;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_TRACING
	/* State flags for use by tracers: */
	unsigned long			trace;

	/* Bitmask and counter of trace recursion: */
	unsigned long			trace_recursion;
#endif /* CONFIG_TRACING */

#ifdef CONFIG_KCOV
	/* Coverage collection mode enabled for this task (0 if disabled): */
	enum kcov_mode			kcov_mode;

	/* Size of the kcov_area: */
	unsigned int			kcov_size;

	/* Buffer for coverage collection: */
	void				*kcov_area;

	/* KCOV descriptor wired with this task or NULL: */
	struct kcov			*kcov;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
	struct mem_cgroup		*memcg_in_oom;
	gfp_t				memcg_oom_gfp_mask;
	int				memcg_oom_order;

	/* Number of pages to reclaim on returning to userland: */
	unsigned int			memcg_nr_pages_over_high;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_UPROBES
	struct uprobe_task		*utask;
#endif
#if defined(CONFIG_BCACHE) || defined(CONFIG_BCACHE_MODULE)
	unsigned int			sequential_io;
	unsigned int			sequential_io_avg;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP
	unsigned long			task_state_change;
#endif
	int				pagefault_disabled;
#ifdef CONFIG_MMU
	struct task_struct		*oom_reaper_list;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_VMAP_STACK
	struct vm_struct		*stack_vm_area;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_THREAD_INFO_IN_TASK
	/* A live task holds one reference: */
	atomic_t			stack_refcount;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_LIVEPATCH
	int patch_state;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_SECURITY
	/* Used by LSM modules for access restriction: */
	void				*security;
#endif

	/*
	 * New fields for task_struct should be added above here, so that
	 * they are included in the randomized portion of task_struct.
	 */
	randomized_struct_fields_end

	/* CPU-specific state of this task: */
	struct thread_struct		thread;

	/*
	 * WARNING: on x86, 'thread_struct' contains a variable-sized
	 * structure.  It *MUST* be at the end of 'task_struct'.
	 *
	 * Do not put anything below here!
	 */
};

Here is the task state bitmask representing process states (/include/linux/sched.h) from the Kernel-source version 4.14 for quick reference:

/*
 * Task state bitmask. NOTE! These bits are also
 * encoded in fs/proc/array.c: get_task_state().
 *
 * We have two separate sets of flags: task->state
 * is about runnability, while task->exit_state are
 * about the task exiting. Confusing, but this way
 * modifying one set can't modify the other one by
 * mistake.
 */

/* Used in tsk->state: */
#define TASK_RUNNING			0x0000
#define TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE		0x0001
#define TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE		0x0002
#define __TASK_STOPPED			0x0004
#define __TASK_TRACED			0x0008
/* Used in tsk->exit_state: */
#define EXIT_DEAD			0x0010
#define EXIT_ZOMBIE			0x0020
#define EXIT_TRACE			(EXIT_ZOMBIE | EXIT_DEAD)
/* Used in tsk->state again: */
#define TASK_PARKED			0x0040
#define TASK_DEAD			0x0080
#define TASK_WAKEKILL			0x0100
#define TASK_WAKING			0x0200
#define TASK_NOLOAD			0x0400
#define TASK_NEW			0x0800
#define TASK_STATE_MAX			0x1000

/* Convenience macros for the sake of set_current_state: */
#define TASK_KILLABLE			(TASK_WAKEKILL | TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE)
#define TASK_STOPPED			(TASK_WAKEKILL | __TASK_STOPPED)
#define TASK_TRACED			(TASK_WAKEKILL | __TASK_TRACED)

#define TASK_IDLE			(TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE | TASK_NOLOAD)

/* Convenience macros for the sake of wake_up(): */
#define TASK_NORMAL			(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE | TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE)
#define TASK_ALL			(TASK_NORMAL | __TASK_STOPPED | __TASK_TRACED)

/* get_task_state(): */
#define TASK_REPORT			(TASK_RUNNING | TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE | \
					 TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE | __TASK_STOPPED | \
					 __TASK_TRACED | EXIT_DEAD | EXIT_ZOMBIE | \
					 TASK_PARKED)