Chain loading
method used by computer programs to replace the currently executing program with a new program, using a common data area to pass information from the current program to the new program
Chain loading is a method used by computer programs to replace the currently executing program with a new program, using a common data area to pass information from the current program to the new program. It occurs in several areas of computing.
Chain loading is similar to the use of overlays. Unlike overlays, however, chain loading replaces the currently executing program in its entirety. Overlays usually replace only a portion of the running program. Like the use of overlays, the use of chain loading increases the I/O load of an application.
Chain loading in boot manager programs
In operating system boot manager programs, chain loading is used to pass control from the boot manager to a boot sector. The target boot sector is loaded in from disk, replacing the in-memory boot sector from which the boot manager itself was bootstrapped, and executed.
Chain loading in Unix
In Unix (and in Unix-like operating systems), the exec() system call is used to perform chain loading. The program image of the current process is replaced with an entirely new image, and the current thread begins execution of that image.
“Chain loading” enters the record as method used by computer programs to replace the currently executing program with a new program, using a common data area to pass information from the current program to the new program. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chain, loading and method can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 2, 2022. The linked authority identifier is Q5067931. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chain loading” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.