在计算机领域中，子进程为由另外一个进程（对应称之为父进程）所创建的进程。子进程继承了父进程的大部分属性，例如文档描述符。

在Unix中，子进程通常为系统调用fork的产物。在此情况下，子进程一开始就是父进程的副本，而在这之后，根据具体需要，子进程可以借助exec调用来链式加载另一进程。

A child process in computing is a process created by another process (the parent process). This technique pertains to multitasking operating systems, and is sometimes called a subprocess or traditionally a subtask.

There are two major procedures for creating a child process: the fork system call (preferred in Unix-like systems and the POSIX standard) and the spawn (preferred in the modern (NT) kernel of Microsoft Windows, as well as in some historical operating systems).