Linux Process Management(3) > at the end of the kernel stack of each process. This > allowed architectures with few registers, such as x86, to > calculate the location of the process descriptor via the > stack pointer without using an extra register to store the > location. > 3. P.18 Storing the Process Descriptor > 1. The system identifies processes by a unique PID. The > default maximum value is 32767(up to 4294967296). > 2. It is very useful to be able to quickly lookup the process > descriptor of the currently executing task, which is done > via the current macro. This macro must be separately > implemented by each supported architecture. > 4. P.19 Process states: > 1. The state field of the process descriptor describes the > current condition of the process. The value is represented > by one of five flags: > 1. TASK_RUNNING: it is either currently running or on a