Unix 面试题与答案

Question: Difference between the fork() and vfork() system call?

Answer: During the fork() system call the Kernel makes a copy of the parent process?s address space and attaches it to the child process. But the vfork() system call do not makes any copy of the parent?s address space, so it is faster than the fork() system call. The child process as a result of the vfork() system call executes exec() system call. The child process from vfork() system call executes in the parent?s address space (this can overwrite the parent?s data and stack ) which suspends the parent process until the child process exits.