proc_pid_exe(5) File Formats Manual proc_pid_exe(5)
NAME
/proc/pid/exe - symbolic link to program pathname
DESCRIPTION
/proc/pid/exe
Under Linux 2.2 and later, this file is a symbolic link contain-
ing the actual pathname of the executed command. This symbolic
link can be dereferenced normally; attempting to open it will
open the executable. You can even type /proc/pid/exe to run an-
other copy of the same executable that is being run by process
pid. If the pathname has been unlinked, the symbolic link will
contain the string ' (deleted)' appended to the original path-
name. In a multithreaded process, the contents of this symbolic
link are not available if the main thread has already terminated
(typically by calling pthread_exit(3)).
Permission to dereference or read (readlink(2)) this symbolic
link is governed by a ptrace access mode PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS
check; see ptrace(2).
Under Linux 2.0 and earlier, /proc/pid/exe is a pointer to the
binary which was executed, and appears as a symbolic link. A
readlink(2) call on this file under Linux 2.0 returns a string in
the format:
[device]:inode
For example, [0301]:1502 would be inode 1502 on device major 03
(IDE, MFM, etc. drives) minor 01 (first partition on the first
drive).
find(1) with the -inum option can be used to locate the file.
SEE ALSO
proc(5)
Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-05-02 proc_pid_exe(5)
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