TACL Reference Manual

Glossary
HP NonStop TACL Reference Manual—429513-018
Glossary-8
process access ID (PAID).
process access ID (PAID). A user ID used to determine whether a process can make
requests to the system; for example, to open a file, stop another process, and so on.
The process access ID is usually the same as the creator access ID, but it can be
different; the owner of the corresponding object file can set the object file security such
that it runs with a process access ID equal to the user ID of the file owner, rather than
the creator of the process. Contrast with creator access ID.
process file name. A file name that identifies a process.
process file segment (PFS). An extended data segment that is automatically allocated to
every process and contains operating system data structures, file-system data
structures, and memory-management pool data structures.
process ID. A C-series structure that serves as an address of a process.
process identification number (PIN). An unsigned integer that identifies a process in a
processor module.
process name. A name that can be assigned to a process when the process is created. A
process name uniquely identifies a process or process pair in a system. A process
name consists of a dollar sign ($), followed by one to five alphanumeric characters, the
first of which must be alphabetic.
process pair. Two processes created from the same object file running in a way that
makes one process a backup process of the other in case of failure. Periodic
checkpointing ensures that the backup process is always ready to take over from the
primary if the primary process should fail. The process pair has one process name, but
each process has a different process identification number (PIN).
process qualifier. A suffix to a process file name that gets passed to a process when the
process is opened; its use is application-dependent.
process time. The amount of time a process has been active while the processor module
was in the environment of the process.
processor clock. A hardware timer on each processor module that keeps processor time;
the number of microseconds since cold load.
processor time. The time represented by a processor clock.
program. A sequence of instructions and data. In TACL, variables of type TEXT, MACRO,
and ROUTINE can define programs.
real time. See wall-clock time.
record lock. A lock held by a process or a transaction that restricts access to that record
by other processes.