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A job refers to a unit of work or set of instructions given to an OS to execute. A job includes all the activities involved in completing a project. It may include small programs or large processes, depending on the project.
Techopedia Explains Job
A job scheduler often schedules the task that needs to be performed. These are arranged as a batch of jobs which will be given to the OS to perform by executing them in the background when other time-interactive activities are not taking place. The jobs that need to be run are lined up; this is known as job queue. Jobs are queued up and the time for each job is scheduled using the job scheduler. This makes system administration or maintenance activities easy by allowing the user to automate the job rather than perform it manually.
- In mainframe and mini computers, a separate language known as job control language (JCL) is used for application launching purposes.
- In UNIX operating systems, job schedulers like Cron are used to schedule jobs.
