Process is a computer term that refers to an executing program. Put another way, a process is a means of allocating the resources of a computer system. A process executes a program. Multiple addresses can execute the same program, but each process has its own copy of the program and executes the copy independently of the other copies.

Processes are organized in a hierarchical manner, and this is where the term child process is germane. Each process has a parent process. The processes created by a parent are called its child processes. A child process relates to a program that is part of a computer's operating system that results from the execution of a program. When a user logs in to a system, the program that begins to run, often called the shell program, is the parent of all subsequent processes. Any processes that are started...