If the code is run, the function forkthem()
will be called with the parameter n
set to 5. Inside the function, the code checks whether n
is greater than 0. Since 5 is greater than 0, the code will execute the following lines:
fork();
forkthem(n-1);
The fork()
function creates a new process, which is a copy of the current process. This means that after the first call to fork()
, there will be two processes running the same code. Each of these processes will then call forkthem()
again, with n
set to 4.
Since 4 is still greater than 0, the fork()
function will be called again, creating two more processes. This means that there are now four processes running the same code. Each of these processes will call forkthem()
again, with n
set to 3.
This process will continue until n
is no longer greater than 0. Since n
is decremented by 1 each time forkthem()
is called, the value of n
will eventually become 0. At this point, the code inside the if
statement will not be executed, and the recursive calls to forkthem()
will stop.
In total, the code will create 2^5 = 32 processes.