fork, exec, wait and exit (opens in new tab)

This is the english version of a 2007 article. In de.comp.os.unix.linux.misc somebody asked: Are commands in a script executed strictly sequentially, that is, will the next command only be executed when the previous command has completed, or will the shell automatically start the next command if the system has spare capacity? Can I change the default behavior - whatever it may be - in any way? If you are looking into the fine manual, it may explain at some point that the shell starts each com...