Hi, I am trying to understand the difference between terms used in Unix like harwdare interrupts,signal, software interrupts. I am totally confused be means of these terms. Please explain me the meaning of each term (preferably along with an example). I also read in one of Richard Steven's book that signals are software interrupts. Is this true? Isn't signals are means for an OS to report something to the user process and may be initiated by a software interrupt or a hardware interrupt? One more thing, When we use term interrupt, is this mean hardware interrupt or software interrupt?
Hi Gaurav, SIGNAL: is a mechanism used for IPC (Inter Process Communication) ... i.e. communication between processes. These have nothing to do with hardware, and are entirely related to software (though it may be that a hardware interrupt RESULTS in a signal being sent to a process) HARDWARE INTERRUPT: is generated from the hardware. The CPU interrupts what it is currently doing, and service the interrupt by executing the corresponding Interuupt service routine. SOFTWARE INTERRUPT: is similar to hardware interrupt but is generated from the software. For eg. an exception caused by the software (dision by zero for instance) or a system call from user land (in which case the system call handler is executed) Thanks, Rajat -- To unsubscribe from this list: send an email with "unsubscribe kernelnewbies" to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxx Please read the FAQ at http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ
