Glossary of Operating Systems Terminology
- address translation
The process of converting virtual memory addresses, which programs use, into physical memory addresses, representing the actual location in memory hardware, to facilitate memory management and isolation between processes.
- kernel
The core component of the operating system which acts as an intermediary between hardware and software.
- program
A set of instructions or code written in a programming language that performs a specific task or set of tasks when executed by a computer.
- process
A dynamic entity that represents the execution of a program in a computer’s memory. It is the actual running instance of a program.
- root directory
The toplevel directory of the filesystem tree, denoted by the path
/.- current working directory
- cwd
The path from which a process performs relative file lookups. Inherited by child processes.
- home directory
A unique directory for each user, where user files are located.
- absolute pathname
A pathname beginning with a forward slash
/...which is resolved beginning from the root directory.- relative pathname
A pathname that is not a absolute pathname, which is resolved beginning from the current working directory.
- file mode creation mask
- umask
A mask which is applied to the file mode of newly created files. Per process.