OSProject: Inter-Process Communication Simulation

This project demonstrates inter-process communication (IPC) using pipes and shared memory to simulate how an operating system manages multiple processes and schedules tasks based on priority.

Table of Contents

• Project Overview
• Features
• Technologies Used
• Installation
• Usage

Project Overview

In this project, the init process forks four child processes (P1, P2, P3, P4), each of which generates a random priority between 0 and 19. The priorities are sent back to the init process through pipes and init writes them into a shared memory segment. The Scheduler process then reads the list of priorities from the shared memory, sorts the tasks in ascending order (lower numbers have higher priority), and prints the sorted list.

This project explores the following core operating system concepts:

• Process creation through forking.
• Inter-process communication (IPC) via pipes.
• Shared memory usage and task scheduling.
• Scheduling policy based on task priority (ascending order sorting).

Features

• Process Forking: init forks 4 child processes (P1–P4).
• Priority Generation: Each child process generates a random priority number between 0 and 19.
• Pipe Communication: Child processes communicate their priority back to the init process using pipes.
• Shared Memory: init and the Scheduler communicate using shared memory for task scheduling.
• Task Scheduling: The Scheduler sorts the processes based on priority before printing the final sorted list.

Technologies Used

• Python: This project uses Python's os and multiprocessing.shared_memory libraries to handle forking, pipes, and shared memory.
• Operating System Concepts: Includes process creation, inter-process communication (IPC), shared memory management, and scheduling policies.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/rikulauttia/OSProject.git
   cd OSProject
   

Usage

Run the project: To see the inter-process communication in action:

    python main.py