Part 2 · Lesson 5 · Intermediate

From Program to Process

Watch a program on disk come alive in memory.

In this interactive Linux lesson from Stencel Academy you don't just read — you type real commands like ./hello and watch the machine respond on a live, animated map. It is part of the free How Linux Works course.

Key takeaway: A program is a file on disk; a process is that program loaded and running in memory.

Before this lesson

Builds on: Names vs Things — inodes & links.

What you'll practise

file /bin/hello — What kind of file is it?
which hello — Find which program will actually run.
ldd /bin/hello — The shared libraries it needs.

Terms you'll learn

programprocessimagememoryexec

Check your understanding

What is the difference between a program and a process?

A process is a program loaded and running in memory
They are two words for the same thing
A program runs; a process is the file on disk

Open the interactive lesson →