Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 24, 2026

Supervisory program

A supervisory program or supervisor is a computer program that is usually referred as an operating system. It controls the execution of other routines such as regulating work schedules, input/output operations, and error actions.

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May 24, 2026
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A supervisory program or supervisor is a computer program that is usually referred as an operating system. It controls the execution of other routines such as regulating work schedules, input/output operations, and error actions.

Historically, this term was essentially associated with IBM's line of mainframe operating systems starting with OS/360. In other operating systems, the supervisor is generally called the kernel.

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