OSS Child Process Manager

C++, POSIX fork & wait

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Overview

A command-line program that forks multiple child processes and manages their execution, demonstrating controlled concurrency and iteration.

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Features

• Process forking
  The master (oss) spawns each user child via fork() + execvp(), up to a total of N processes (set by -n N, default: 1).
• Concurrency control
  Ensures that no more than M children run at once (set by -s M, default: 1); parent blocks on wait() to free slots.
• Configurable iterations
  Pass -t T to specify how many loops each child performs (default: 1).
• Robust CLI parsing
  Optional flags -n, -s, and -t default to 1 if not provided; when used they require a positive integer. The -h flag displays usage. Missing or non-numeric flag arguments produce clear error messages.

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Build & Run

# 1. Clone
git clone [email protected]:mgarson/oss-child-process-manager.git
cd oss-child-process-manager

# 2. Build
make

# 3. Usage
./oss [-h] [-n N] [-s M] [-t T]

# Examples
./oss -n 5 -s 2    # Launch 5 children, 2 at a time
./oss -n 3 -t 10   # Launch 3 children, 1 at a time, each doing 10 iterations