In Linux Operating System, when _________ is invoked, it is passed a set of flags that determine how much sharing is to take place between the parent and child tasks. 

The correct answer is clone()

Key Points

• clone(): This system call creates a new process, similar to fork(), but it also allows the child process to share parts of its execution context with the calling process.
• The execution context includes resources like memory space, file descriptor tables, etc.
• The degree of sharing is controlled by a set of flags passed when invoked, which defines a spectrum between traditional processes and threads.

Additional Information

• fork(): This is a system call used in Unix and Linux-based systems that creates a new process. The new process, called the child process, is an exact copy of the calling process, which is the parent process. It gets a new process ID (PID) and inherits most of the properties of the parent process, but they do not share the same memory space.
• pthread_create(): This function is used to create a new thread in the context of the current process in POSIX-compliant operating systems (like Unix or Linux). Threads created by pthread_create share the same memory space but get their own stack memory.
• There is no thread() system call in Linux.