Program and Process in operating systems

By: Prof. Dr. Fazal Rehman | Last updated: March 3, 2022

What is the Program?

A program contains a set of instructions and a set of instructions to perform some specific tasks for the user. A program is stored on secondary storage. For example, a program is stored on a hard disk in the computer. When we execute the program, the program converts into the process.

What is the process?

The process is the program in execution.

How is a program converted into the process?

The program can be converted into the process by following three actions;

• Compiler
• Linker
• Loader

What is the Compiler?

The compiler converts the high-level language code into the low-level language code or object code. The compiler creates the .o file.

What is Linker?

Linker converts the object code or low-level language code into the executable code. The linker creates the .exe file.

What is Loader?

The loader loads the executable code into the main memory and allocates the address space for the process. A program contains code and data sections.

What is the code section of the program?

The code section of the program contains the program instructions or lines of code.

What is the data section of the program?

The data section of the program contains the data of the program. For example, it contains all the initialized variables in the program, etc.