The operation described is characteristic of the fork() system call in Linux, which is used to create a new process. The fork() system call generates a new process by duplicating the calling (parent) process. If the fork() is successful, the PID of the child process is returned to the parent process, and a 0 value is returned to the child process. If unsuccessful, a negative value is returned2.
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* How to create a process in Linux? - Online Tutorials Library