PROCFS(5)

NAME
procfs - process file system

SYNOPSIS

    proc		/proc	procfs	rw 0 0

DESCRIPTION
The process file system, or procfs, implements a view of the system process table inside the file system. It is normally mounted on /proc, and is required for the complete operation of programs such as ps(1) and w(1).

The procfs provides a two-level view of process space, unlike the previous FreeBSD 1.1 procfs implementation. At the highest level, processes themselves are named, according to their process ids in decimal, with no leading zeros. There is also a special node called curproc which always refers to the process making the lookup request.

Each node is a directory which contains the following entries:

Each directory contains several files:

ctl a write-only file which supports a variety of control operations. Control commands are written as strings to the ctl file. The control commands are:
    attach
        stops the target process and arranges for the sending process to become the debug control process.
    detach
        continue execution of the target process and remove it from control by the debug process (which need not be the sending process).
    run continue running the target process until a signal is delivered, a breakpoint is hit, or the target process exits.
    step
        single step the target process, with no signal delivery.
    wait
        wait for the target process to come to a steady state ready for debugging. The target process must be in this state before any of the other commands are allowed.

    The string can also be the name of a signal, lower case and without the SIG prefix, in which case that signal is delivered to the process (see sigaction(2) ).

etype
    The type of the executable referenced by the file entry.

file
    A reference to the vnode from which the process text was read. This can be used to gain access to the process' symbol table, or to start another copy of the process.

fpregs
    The floating point registers as defined by struct fpregs in <machine/reg.h>. fpregs is only implemented on machines which have distinct general purpose and floating point register sets.

map A map of the process' virtual memory.

mem The complete virtual memory image of the process. Only those address which exist in the process can be accessed. Reads and writes to this file modify the process. Writes to the text segment remain private to the process.

note
    Used for sending signals to the process. Not implemented.

notepg
    Used for sending signal to the process group. Not implemented.

regs
    Allows read and write access to the process' register set. This file contains a binary data structure struct regs defined in <machine/reg.h>. regs can only be written when the process is stopped.

status
    The process status. This file is read-only and returns a single line containing multiple space-separated fields as follows:

    •   command name
    •   process id
    •   parent process id
    •   process group id
    •   session id
    •   major,minor of the controlling terminal, or -1,-1 if there is no controlling terminal.
    •   a list of process flags: ctty if there is a controlling terminal, sldr if the process is a session leader, noflags if neither of the other two flags are set.
    •   the process start time in seconds and microseconds, comma separated.
    •   the user time in seconds and microseconds, comma separated.
    •   the system time in seconds and microseconds, comma separated.
    •   the wait channel message
    •   the process credentials consisting of the effective user id and the list of groups (whose first member is the effective group id) all comma separated.

In a normal debugging environment, where the target is fork/exec'd by the debugger, the debugger should fork and the child should stop itself (with a self-inflicted SIGSTOP for example). The parent should issue a wait and then an attach command via the appropriate ctl file. The child process will receive a SIGTRAP immediately after the call to exec (see execve(2) ).

Each node is owned by the process's user, and belongs to that user's primary group, except for the mem node, which belongs to the kmem group.

FILES
/proc
    normal mount point for the procfs.
/proc/pid
    directory containing process information for process pid.
/proc/curproc
    directory containing process information for the current process
/proc/curproc/ctl
    used to send control messages to the process
/proc/curproc/etype
    executable type
/proc/curproc/file
    executable image
/proc/curproc/fpregs
    the process floating point register set
/proc/curproc/map
    virtual memory map of the process
/proc/curproc/mem
    the complete virtual address space of the process
/proc/curproc/note
    used for signaling the process
/proc/curproc/notepg
    used for signaling the process group
/proc/curproc/regs
    the process register set
/proc/curproc/status
    the process' current status

SEE ALSO
mount(2), sigaction(2), unmount(2), mount_procfs(8)

AUTHOR
This manual page written by Garrett Wollman, based on the description provided by Jan-Simon Pendry, and revamped later by Mike Pritchard.