NAME
mount_procfs —
mount the process file
system
SYNOPSIS
mount_procfs |
[-o options]
/proc mount_point |
DESCRIPTION
Themount_procfs command attaches an instance of the
process namespace to the global filesystem namespace. The conventional mount
point is /proc. This command is normally executed by
mount(8) at boot time.
The options are as follows:
-o- Options are specified with a
-oflag followed by a comma separated string of options. See the mount(8) man page for possible options and their meanings.
The root of the process filesystem contains an entry for each active process. These processes are visible as a directory whose name is the process' pid. In addition, the special entry curproc references the current process.
Each directory contains several files.
- ctl
- a writeonly 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
SIGprefix, in which case that signal is delivered to the process (see sigaction(2) ). - 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.
- 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
- Not implemented.
- notepg
- Not implemented.
- regs
- Allows read and write access to the process' register set. This file
contains a binary data structure
struct regsdefined in <machine/reg.h>. regs can only be written when the process is stopped. - fpregs
- The floating point registers as defined by
struct fpregsin <machine/reg.h>. fpregs is only implemented on machines which have distinct general purpose and floating point register sets. - status
- The process status. This file is readonly 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,-1if there is no controlling terminal. - a list of process flags:
cttyif there is a controlling terminal,sldrif the process is a session leader,noflagsif 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) ).
FILES
- /proc/#
- /proc/curproc
- /proc/curproc/ctl
- /proc/curproc/file
- /proc/curproc/mem
- /proc/curproc/note
- /proc/curproc/notepg
- /proc/curproc/regs
- /proc/curproc/fpregs
- /proc/curproc/status
SEE ALSO
CAVEATS
No ~. and .. entries appear when listing the contents of the /proc directory. This makes sense in the context of this filesystem, but is inconsistent with usual filesystem conventions. However, it is still possible to refer to both ~. and .. in a pathname.
This filesystem may not be NFS-exported since most of the
functionality of procfs requires that state be
maintained.
HISTORY
The mount_procfs utility first appeared in
4.4BSD.