Multiprocesses & shared library question

Hey So I'm sorta getting the idea of multiple processes but now I encounter a theory problem.
So I want to do 3 processes. one parent and 2 child of that one parent. So the child are going to use this library code thats basically makes a linklist or data repository. The question i have is that since both the child are seperate processes and they both access the library that creates a linklist. Does this end up making 2 link list for each one of the child or do they share the memory and share the data respository leaving only one link list in the whole project.


If this does create 2 link list since I'm not really sure how linux does its memory management, what possible solutions are there to share a library with the 2 child processes that making only 1 data respository instead of two

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Originally Posted by kiros88

If this does create 2 link list since I'm not really sure how linux does its memory management, what possible solutions are there to share a library with the 2 child processes that making only 1 data respository instead of two

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Using fork() you will end up with two lists. Using pthreads() you could access the same list, but of course pthreads() is much more work.

so does linux besides using pthreads have any way of making a library a shared library data respository

Separate processes are a good idea if the processes do not need to share data. If data sharing is a requirement, threads is probably a better idea.

"any way of making a library a shared library data respository"...

Sorry, but I do not really understand your terms here :) It is probably my fault, since I am not native english speaker. If you mean data sharing between running processes, then yes. You can use shared memory, which can be accessed from multiple processes.

If you mean how library linking is done, then linux offers 2 possibilities, static *.a libraries, which will be linked statically into binary, and shared libraries (*.so), which can be linked at runtime. *.so libraries are not needed to be loaded on physical ram more than once, since MMU can map the *.so lib (which resides in only one place at physical memory) multiple times in different locations on virtual memory - satisfying the needs of multiple processes without wasting physical ram.

I am not sure if I answered to correct question though :D