What are process states?

Can you explain what process states are in an operating system?

Sure! Process states refer to the various stages a process goes through during its lifecycle, such as new, ready, running, waiting, and terminated.

What does each state mean?

The 'new' state is when a process is being created, 'ready' means it's waiting to be assigned to a processor, 'running' is when it's currently being executed, 'waiting' indicates it's waiting for some event to occur, and 'terminated' means the process has finished execution.

How does a process transition between these states?

Processes transition between states based on events like resource availability, completion of I/O operations, or scheduling by the operating system.

Can you give an example of a process moving through these states?

Certainly! For example, when you open a program, it starts in the 'new' state, moves to 'ready' when it's waiting for CPU time, goes to 'running' when it's executing, may enter 'waiting' if it needs to read a file, and finally goes to 'terminated' when you close it.