Which operation creates a new process by cloning the current process in Unix-like systems?

• A. Fork
• B. Spawn
• C. Exec
• D. Clone

Answer: (A)

In Unix-like systems the operation that creates a new process as a near-copy of the current one is fork. When a process calls fork, the kernel creates a child process that starts execution right after the fork point. Both processes run independently after that, with the child receiving a return value of zero and the parent receiving the child’s process ID. Memory is typically shared initially using copy-on-write, so the actual memory pages aren’t duplicated until either process writes to them. This duplication is exactly what “cloning” the current process means: two separate processes that began as one. If you want to run a completely different program in the same process, you’d use an exec call, which replaces the process image rather than duplicating it. Other terms like spawn or clone appear in different contexts or systems, but the standard Unix mechanism for duplicating the current process is fork.