Process Context and Interrupt Context

The kernel accomplishes useful work using a combination of process contexts and interrupt contexts .

 

Kernel code that services system calls issued by user applications runs on behalf of the corresponding application
processes and is said to execute in process context .

Interrupt handlers, on the other hand, run asynchronously in interrupt context .

Processes contexts are not tied to any interrupt context and vice versa.

Kernel code running in process context is preemptible .

An interrupt context, however, always runs to completion and is not preemptible . Because of this, there are restrictions on what can be done from interrupt context.

 

Code executing from interrupt context cannot do the following:
Go to sleep or relinquish the processor
Acquire a mutex
Perform time-consuming tasks
Access user space virtual memory
Look at section "Interrupt Handing" in Chapter 4 for a full discussion of the interrupt context