processscoped

Processscoped is a term used in software architecture to describe resources, services, or configurations whose lifetime is tied to the lifetime of the running process. A processscoped object exists for the duration of the process and is typically shared across threads and requests within that process. In contrast to per-request or per-thread scopes, a processscoped instance is created once per process and disposed when the process terminates.

In dependency injection and service lifetime models, process scope can be implemented as a root or singleton-like scope that lives for the entire process. Initialization can be lazy or eager, and disposal occurs at process shutdown. This approach ensures a single shared instance across users or tasks within the same process, avoiding per-request re-creation while maintaining a clear shutdown path.

Common use cases for process-scoped resources include cross-cutting concerns such as logging, metrics collection, configuration providers, or resource pools that are safe to share across multiple threads and requests. Process-scoped caches or adapters that should persist for the life of the application are another example.

Implementation considerations include thread safety, initialization order, and memory usage, since a process-scoped object may remain resident for a long time. Deterministic disposal can be challenging at process exit, and some environments may not guarantee a strict disposal sequence. In testing, process-scoped state may need isolation or reset between test runs, depending on how tests are executed and whether they share a process.

See also: lifetime management, dependency injection, singleton, and per-process resources.