how to get process name from c program?

Question

In C program in linux, we can use getpid() and getppid() system call to get the pid and ppid of a process,

Similarly is there any system call to get name of a process/current process?

I would fetch the process list (using `ps`) and match on the pid. — chtenb, Jan 13 '14 at 11:55

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 13 '14 at 11:55

5

You can have a look at the /proc/$pid/cmdline file (open it like a normal file and read the zero-byte-delimited command line from it).

That's the way the Unix tool ps does it on Linux.

answered Jan 13 '14 at 11:55

Alfe

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 13 '14 at 12:12

1

one simple way to know the current executable name is argv[0], which tells you the name of the current executable in C.

edited Jan 13 '14 at 12:12

Nayan

answered Jan 13 '14 at 11:55

Celestial

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

1

I implemented the solution using the program_invocation_name variable.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

Community

answered Mar 13 '14 at 11:19

Markus

3 Answers3