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Hectal
Phase 3Intermediate4 of 9 in Linux

Processes & Job Control

Every running program is a process with a life cycle you can inspect, control, and signal — and systemd is how modern Linux keeps them running unattended.

Everything you run — a shell command, a Spring Boot app, a Node server — becomes a PROCESS the instant it starts. This phase covers what a process actually is, how to inspect and control running ones, and how systemd (the modern standard) keeps real services running reliably without you babysitting them.

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4 topics ~55 min 6 code blocks & diagrams
Start with the first topic
1
3.1

What a Process Actually Is

A process is a running instance of a program, with its own memory, its own process ID, and a parent that spawned it — understanding this model demystifies almost everything else in this phase.

14 min 1 diagram 1 code practice

2
3.2

Monitoring and Killing Processes

ps and top/htop show you what's running right now; kill sends SIGNALS to processes — and the specific signal you send matters far more than most people realize.

14 min 1 code practice

3
3.3

Foreground, Background & Job Control

A command can run in the FOREGROUND (blocking your terminal until it finishes) or the BACKGROUND (freeing your terminal immediately) — and a handful of commands let you move between the two.

13 min 1 code practice

4
3.4

systemd & Services

systemd is the modern standard for running services on Linux — it starts them at boot, restarts them if they crash, and gives you one consistent set of commands (systemctl) to control anything, regardless of what the service actually is.

14 min 2 code practice