The following C program is executed on a Unix/Linux system: #include int main() { int i; for(i=0; i

Question

The following C program is executed on a Unix/Linux system:
#include<unistd.h>
int main() {
    int i;
    for(i=0; i<10; i++)
        if(i%2 == 0) fork();
    return 0;
}
The total number of child processes created is ___________

Accepted Answer

The total number of child processes created is 31. The loop runs 10 iterations (i=0 to 9). fork() is called only when i is even, i.e., at i=0, 2, 4, 6, 8 — that is 5 times. Each time fork() is called, every currently existing process creates a child, doubling the total. Starting from 1 process, after 5 doublings we have 2^5 = 32 processes, so 31 children.

The following C program is executed on a Unix/Linux system: #include<unistd.h> int main() { int i; for(i=0; i<10; i++) if(i%2 == 0) fork(); return 0; } The total number of child processes created is ___________