proc(4) File Formats proc(4)NAMEproc - /proc, the process file system
DESCRIPTION
/proc is a file system that provides access to the state of each
process and light-weight process (lwp) in the system. The name of each
entry in the /proc directory is a decimal number corresponding to a
process-ID. These entries are themselves subdirectories. Access to
process state is provided by additional files contained within each
subdirectory; the hierarchy is described more completely below. In this
document, ``/proc file'' refers to a non-directory file within the
hierarchy rooted at /proc. The owner of each /proc file and subdirec‐
tory is determined by the user-ID of the process.
/proc can be mounted on any mount point, in addition to the standard
/proc mount point, and can be mounted several places at once. Such
additional mounts are allowed in order to facilitate the confinement of
processes to subtrees of the file system via chroot(1M) and yet allow
such processes access to commands like ps(1).
Standard system calls are used to access /proc files: open(2),
close(2), read(2), and write(2) (including readv(2), writev(2),
pread(2), and pwrite(2)). Most files describe process state and can
only be opened for reading. ctl and lwpctl (control) files permit
manipulation of process state and can only be opened for writing. as
(address space) files contain the image of the running process and can
be opened for both reading and writing. An open for writing allows
process control; a read-only open allows inspection but not control. In
this document, we refer to the process as open for reading or writing
if any of its associated /proc files is open for reading or writing.
In general, more than one process can open the same /proc file at the
same time. Exclusive open is an advisory mechanism provided to allow
controlling processes to avoid collisions with each other. A process
can obtain exclusive control of a target process, with respect to other
cooperating processes, if it successfully opens any /proc file in the
target process for writing (the as or ctl files, or the lwpctl file of
any lwp) while specifying O_EXCL in the open(2). Such an open will fail
if the target process is already open for writing (that is, if an as,
ctl, or lwpctl file is already open for writing). There can be any num‐
ber of concurrent read-only opens; O_EXCL is ignored on opens for read‐
ing. It is recommended that the first open for writing by a controlling
process use the O_EXCL flag; multiple controlling processes usually
result in chaos.
If a process opens one of its own /proc files for writing, the open
succeeds regardless of O_EXCL and regardless of whether some other
process has the process open for writing. Self-opens do not count when
another process attempts an exclusive open. (A process cannot exclude a
debugger by opening itself for writing and the application of a debug‐
ger cannot prevent a process from opening itself.) All self-opens for
writing are forced to be close-on-exec (see the F_SETFD operation of
fcntl(2)).
Data may be transferred from or to any locations in the address space
of the traced process by applying lseek(2) to position the as file at
the virtual address of interest followed by read(2) or write(2) (or by
using pread(2) or pwrite(2) for the combined operation). The address-
map file /proc/pid/map can be read to determine the accessible areas
(mappings) of the address space. I/O transfers may span contiguous map‐
pings. An I/O request extending into an unmapped area is truncated at
the boundary. A write request beginning at an unmapped virtual address
fails with EIO; a read request beginning at an unmapped virtual address
returns zero (an end-of-file indication).
Information and control operations are provided through additional
files. <procfs.h> contains definitions of data structures and message
formats used with these files. Some of these definitions involve the
use of sets of flags. The set types sigset_t, fltset_t, and sysset_t
correspond, respectively, to signal, fault, and system call enumera‐
tions defined in <sys/signal.h>, <sys/fault.h>, and <sys/syscall.h>.
Each set type is large enough to hold flags for its own enumeration.
Although they are of different sizes, they have a common structure and
can be manipulated by these macros:
prfillset(&set); /* turn on all flags in set */
premptyset(&set); /* turn off all flags in set */
praddset(&set, flag); /* turn on the specified flag */
prdelset(&set, flag); /* turn off the specified flag */
r = prismember(&set, flag); /* != 0 iff flag is turned on */
One of prfillset() or premptyset() must be used to initialize set
before it is used in any other operation. flag must be a member of the
enumeration corresponding to set.
Every process contains at least one light-weight process, or lwp. Each
lwp represents a flow of execution that is independently scheduled by
the operating system. All lwps in a process share its address space as
well as many other attributes. Through the use of lwpctl and ctl files
as described below, it is possible to affect individual lwps in a
process or to affect all of them at once, depending on the operation.
When the process has more than one lwp, a representative lwp is chosen
by the system for certain process status files and control operations.
The representative lwp is a stopped lwp only if all of the process's
lwps are stopped; is stopped on an event of interest only if all of the
lwps are so stopped (excluding PR_SUSPENDED lwps); is in a PR_REQUESTED
stop only if there are no other events of interest to be found; or,
failing everything else, is in a PR_SUSPENDED stop (implying that the
process is deadlocked). See the description of the status file for def‐
initions of stopped states. See the PCSTOP control operation for the
definition of ``event of interest''.
The representative lwp remains fixed (it will be chosen again on the
next operation) as long as all of the lwps are stopped on events of
interest or are in a PR_SUSPENDED stop and the PCRUN control operation
is not applied to any of them.
When applied to the process control file, every /proc control operation
that must act on an lwp uses the same algorithm to choose which lwp to
act upon. Together with synchronous stopping (see PCSET), this enables
a debugger to control a multiple-lwp process using only the process-
level status and control files if it so chooses. More fine-grained con‐
trol can be achieved using the lwp-specific files.
The system supports two process data models, the traditional 32-bit
data model in which ints, longs and pointers are all 32 bits wide (the
ILP32 data model), and on some platforms the 64-bit data model in which
longs and pointers, but not ints, are 64 bits in width (the LP64 data
model). In the LP64 data model some system data types, notably size_t,
off_t, time_t and dev_t, grow from 32 bits to 64 bits as well.
The /proc interfaces described here are available to both 32-bit and
64-bit controlling processes. However, many operations attempted by a
32-bit controlling process on a 64-bit target process will fail with
EOVERFLOW because the address space range of a 32-bit process cannot
encompass a 64-bit process or because the data in some 64-bit system
data type cannot be compressed to fit into the corresponding 32-bit
type without loss of information. Operations that fail in this circum‐
stance include reading and writing the address space, reading the
address-map file, and setting the target process's registers. There is
no restriction on operations applied by a 64-bit process to either a
32-bit or a 64-bit target processes.
The format of the contents of any /proc file depends on the data model
of the observer (the controlling process), not on the data model of the
target process. A 64-bit debugger does not have to translate the infor‐
mation it reads from a /proc file for a 32-bit process from 32-bit for‐
mat to 64-bit format. However, it usually has to be aware of the data
model of the target process. The pr_dmodel field of the status files
indicates the target process's data model.
To help deal with system data structures that are read from 32-bit pro‐
cesses, a 64-bit controlling program can be compiled with the C pre‐
processor symbol _SYSCALL32 defined before system header files are
included. This makes explicit 32-bit fixed-width data structures (like
cstruct stat32) visible to the 64-bit program. See types32.h(3HEAD).
DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
At the top level, the directory /proc contains entries each of which
names an existing process in the system. These entries are themselves
directories. Except where otherwise noted, the files described below
can be opened for reading only. In addition, if a process becomes a
zombie (one that has exited but whose parent has not yet performed a
wait(3C) upon it), most of its associated /proc files disappear from
the hierarchy; subsequent attempts to open them, or to read or write
files opened before the process exited, will elicit the error ENOENT.
Although process state and consequently the contents of /proc files can
change from instant to instant, a single read(2) of a /proc file is
guaranteed to return a sane representation of state; that is, the read
will be atomic with respect to the state of the process. No such guar‐
antee applies to successive reads applied to a /proc file for a running
process. In addition, atomicity is not guaranteed for I/O applied to
the as (address-space) file for a running process or for a process
whose address space contains memory shared by another running process.
A number of structure definitions are used to describe the files. These
structures may grow by the addition of elements at the end in future
releases of the system and it is not legitimate for a program to assume
that they will not.
STRUCTURE OF /proc/pid
A given directory /proc/pid contains the following entries. A process
can use the invisible alias /proc/self if it wishes to open one of its
own /proc files (invisible in the sense that the name ``self'' does not
appear in a directory listing of /proc obtained from ls(1), get‐
dents(2), or readdir(3C)).
contracts
A directory containing references to the contracts held by the process.
Each entry is a symlink to the contract's directory under /system/con‐
tract. See contract(4).
as
Contains the address-space image of the process; it can be opened for
both reading and writing. lseek(2) is used to position the file at the
virtual address of interest and then the address space can be examined
or changed through read(2) or write(2) (or by using pread(2) or
pwrite(2) for the combined operation).
ctl
A write-only file to which structured messages are written directing
the system to change some aspect of the process's state or control its
behavior in some way. The seek offset is not relevant when writing to
this file. Individual lwps also have associated lwpctl files in the lwp
subdirectories. A control message may be written either to the
process's ctl file or to a specific lwpctl file with operation-specific
effects. The effect of a control message is immediately reflected in
the state of the process visible through appropriate status and infor‐
mation files. The types of control messages are described in detail
later. See CONTROL MESSAGES.
status
Contains state information about the process and the representative
lwp. The file contains a pstatus structure which contains an embedded
lwpstatus structure for the representative lwp, as follows:
typedef struct pstatus {
int pr_flags; /* flags (see below) */
int pr_nlwp; /* number of active lwps in the process */
int pr_nzomb; /* number of zombie lwps in the process */
pid_tpr_pid; /* process id */
pid_tpr_ppid; /* parent process id */
pid_tpr_pgid; /* process group id */
pid_tpr_sid; /* session id */
id_t pr_aslwpid; /* obsolete */
id_t pr_agentid; /* lwp-id of the agent lwp, if any */
sigset_t pr_sigpend; /* set of process pending signals */
uintptr_t pr_brkbase; /* virtual address of the process heap */
size_t pr_brksize; /* size of the process heap, in bytes */
uintptr_t pr_stkbase; /* virtual address of the process stack */
size_tpr_stksize; /* size of the process stack, in bytes */
timestruc_t pr_utime; /* process user cpu time */
timestruc_t pr_stime; /* process system cpu time */
timestruc_t pr_cutime; /* sum of children's user times */
timestruc_t pr_cstime; /* sum of children's system times */
sigset_t pr_sigtrace; /* set of traced signals */
fltset_t pr_flttrace; /* set of traced faults */
sysset_t pr_sysentry; /* set of system calls traced on entry */
sysset_t pr_sysexit; /* set of system calls traced on exit */
char pr_dmodel; /* data model of the process */
taskid_t pr_taskid; /* task id */
projid_t pr_projid; /* project id */
zoneid_t pr_zoneid; /* zone id */
lwpstatus_t pr_lwp; /* status of the representative lwp */
} pstatus_t;
pr_flags is a bit-mask holding the following process flags. For conve‐
nience, it also contains the lwp flags for the representative lwp,
described later.
PR_ISSYS process is a system process (see PCSTOP).
PR_VFORKP process is the parent of a vforked child (see
PCWATCH).
PR_FORK process has its inherit-on-fork mode set (see
PCSET).
PR_RLC process has its run-on-last-close mode set (see
PCSET).
PR_KLC process has its kill-on-last-close mode set (see
PCSET).
PR_ASYNC process has its asynchronous-stop mode set (see
PCSET).
PR_MSACCT Set by default in all processes to indicate that
microstate accounting is enabled. However, this
flag has been deprecated and no longer has any
effect. Microstate accounting may not be disabled;
however, it is still possible to toggle the flag.
PR_MSFORK Set by default in all processes to indicate that
microstate accounting will be enabled for processes
that this parent forks(). However, this flag has
been deprecated and no longer has any effect. It is
possible to toggle this flag; however, it is not
possible to disable microstate accounting.
PR_BPTADJ process has its breakpoint adjustment mode set (see
PCSET).
PR_PTRACE process has its ptrace-compatibility mode set (see
PCSET).
pr_nlwp is the total number of active lwps in the process. pr_nzomb is
the total number of zombie lwps in the process. A zombie lwp is a non-
detached lwp that has terminated but has not been reaped with
thr_join(3C) or pthread_join(3C).
pr_pid, pr_ppid, pr_pgid, and pr_sid are, respectively, the process ID,
the ID of the process's parent, the process's process group ID, and the
process's session ID.
pr_aslwpid is obsolete and is always zero.
pr_agentid is the lwp-ID for the /proc agent lwp (see the PCAGENT con‐
trol operation). It is zero if there is no agent lwp in the process.
pr_sigpend identifies asynchronous signals pending for the process.
pr_brkbase is the virtual address of the process heap and pr_brksize is
its size in bytes. The address formed by the sum of these values is the
process break (see brk(2)). pr_stkbase and pr_stksize are, respec‐
tively, the virtual address of the process stack and its size in bytes.
(Each lwp runs on a separate stack; the distinguishing characteristic
of the process stack is that the operating system will grow it when
necessary.)
pr_utime, pr_stime, pr_cutime, and pr_cstime are, respectively, the
user CPU and system CPU time consumed by the process, and the cumula‐
tive user CPU and system CPU time consumed by the process's children,
in seconds and nanoseconds.
pr_sigtrace and pr_flttrace contain, respectively, the set of signals
and the set of hardware faults that are being traced (see PCSTRACE and
PCSFAULT).
pr_sysentry and pr_sysexit contain, respectively, the sets of system
calls being traced on entry and exit (see PCSENTRY and PCSEXIT).
pr_dmodel indicates the data model of the process. Possible values are:
PR_MODEL_ILP32 process data model is ILP32.
PR_MODEL_LP64 process data model is LP64.
PR_MODEL_NATIVE process data model is native.
The pr_taskid, pr_projid, and pr_zoneid fields contain respectively,
the numeric IDs of the task, project, and zone in which the process was
running.
The constant PR_MODEL_NATIVE reflects the data model of the controlling
process, that is, its value is PR_MODEL_ILP32 or PR_MODEL_LP64 accord‐
ing to whether the controlling process has been compiled as a 32-bit
program or a 64-bit program, respectively.
pr_lwp contains the status information for the representative lwp:
typedef struct lwpstatus {
int pr_flags; /* flags (see below) */
id_t pr_lwpid; /* specific lwp identifier */
short pr_why; /* reason for lwp stop, if stopped */
short pr_what; /* more detailed reason */
short pr_cursig; /* current signal, if any */
siginfo_t pr_info; /* info associated with signal or fault */
sigset_t pr_lwppend; /* set of signals pending to the lwp */
sigset_t pr_lwphold; /* set of signals blocked by the lwp */
struct sigaction pr_action; /* signal action for current signal */
stack_t pr_altstack; /* alternate signal stack info */
uintptr_t pr_oldcontext; /* address of previous ucontext */
short pr_syscall; /* system call number (if in syscall) */
short pr_nsysarg; /* number of arguments to this syscall */
int pr_errno; /* errno for failed syscall */
long pr_sysarg[PRSYSARGS]; /* arguments to this syscall */
long pr_rval1; /* primary syscall return value */
long pr_rval2; /* second syscall return value, if any */
char pr_clname[PRCLSZ]; /* scheduling class name */
timestruc_t pr_tstamp; /* real-time time stamp of stop */
timestruc_t pr_utime; /* lwp user cpu time */
timestruc_t pr_stime; /* lwp system cpu time */
uintptr_t pr_ustack; /* stack boundary data (stack_t) address */
ulong_t pr_instr; /* current instruction */
prgregset_t pr_reg; /* general registers */
prfpregset_t pr_fpreg; /* floating-point registers */
} lwpstatus_t;
pr_flags is a bit-mask holding the following lwp flags. For conve‐
nience, it also contains the process flags, described previously.
PR_STOPPED The lwp is stopped.
PR_ISTOP The lwp is stopped on an event of interest (see
PCSTOP).
PR_DSTOP The lwp has a stop directive in effect (see
PCSTOP).
PR_STEP The lwp has a single-step directive in effect (see
PCRUN).
PR_ASLEEP The lwp is in an interruptible sleep within a sys‐
tem call.
PR_PCINVAL The lwp's current instruction (pr_instr) is unde‐
fined.
PR_DETACH This is a detached lwp (see pthread_create(3C) and
pthread_join(3C)).
PR_DAEMON This is a daemon lwp (see pthread_create(3C)).
PR_ASLWP This flag is obsolete and is never set.
PR_AGENT This is the /proc agent lwp for the process.
pr_lwpid names the specific lwp.
pr_why and pr_what together describe, for a stopped lwp, the reason for
the stop. Possible values of pr_why and the associated pr_what are:
PR_REQUESTED indicates that the stop occurred in response to a
stop directive, normally because PCSTOP was applied
or because another lwp stopped on an event of
interest and the asynchronous-stop flag (see PCSET)
was not set for the process. pr_what is unused in
this case.
PR_SIGNALLED indicates that the lwp stopped on receipt of a sig‐
nal (see PCSTRACE); pr_what holds the signal number
that caused the stop (for a newly-stopped lwp, the
same value is in pr_cursig).
PR_FAULTED indicates that the lwp stopped on incurring a hard‐
ware fault (see PCSFAULT); pr_what holds the fault
number that caused the stop.
PR_SYSENTRY indicate a stop on entry to or exit from a system
PR_SYSEXIT call (see PCSENTRY and PCSEXIT); pr_what holds the
system call number.
PR_JOBCONTROL indicates that the lwp stopped due to the default
action of a job control stop signal (see sigac‐
tion(2)); pr_what holds the stopping signal number.
PR_SUSPENDED indicates that the lwp stopped due to internal syn‐
chronization of lwps within the process. pr_what is
unused in this case.
pr_cursig names the current signal, that is, the next signal to be
delivered to the lwp, if any. pr_info, when the lwp is in a PR_SIG‐
NALLED or PR_FAULTED stop, contains additional information pertinent to
the particular signal or fault (see <sys/siginfo.h>).
pr_lwppend identifies any synchronous or directed signals pending for
the lwp. pr_lwphold identifies those signals whose delivery is being
blocked by the lwp (the signal mask).
pr_action contains the signal action information pertaining to the cur‐
rent signal (see sigaction(2)); it is undefined if pr_cursig is zero.
pr_altstack contains the alternate signal stack information for the lwp
(see sigaltstack(2)).
pr_oldcontext, if not zero, contains the address on the lwp stack of a
ucontext structure describing the previous user-level context (see
ucontext.h(3HEAD)). It is non-zero only if the lwp is executing in the
context of a signal handler.
pr_syscall is the number of the system call, if any, being executed by
the lwp; it is non-zero if and only if the lwp is stopped on PR_SYSEN‐
TRY or PR_SYSEXIT, or is asleep within a system call ( PR_ASLEEP is
set). If pr_syscall is non-zero, pr_nsysarg is the number of arguments
to the system call and pr_sysarg contains the actual arguments.
pr_rval1, pr_rval2, and pr_errno are defined only if the lwp is stopped
on PR_SYSEXIT or if the PR_VFORKP flag is set. If pr_errno is zero,
pr_rval1 and pr_rval2 contain the return values from the system call.
Otherwise, pr_errno contains the error number for the failing system
call (see <sys/errno.h>).
pr_errpriv is a missing privilege.
pr_clname contains the name of the lwp's scheduling class.
pr_tstamp, if the lwp is stopped, contains a time stamp marking when
the lwp stopped, in real time seconds and nanoseconds since an arbi‐
trary time in the past.
pr_utime is the amount of user level CPU time used by this LWP.
pr_stime is the amount of system level CPU time used by this LWP.
pr_ustack is the virtual address of the stack_t that contains the stack
boundaries for this LWP. See getustack(2) and _stack_grow(3C).
pr_instr contains the machine instruction to which the lwp's program
counter refers. The amount of data retrieved from the process is
machine-dependent. On SPARC based machines, it is a 32-bit word. On
x86-based machines, it is a single byte. In general, the size is that
of the machine's smallest instruction. If PR_PCINVAL is set, pr_instr
is undefined; this occurs whenever the lwp is not stopped or when the
program counter refers to an invalid virtual address.
pr_reg is an array holding the contents of a stopped lwp's general reg‐
isters.
SPARC
On SPARC-based machines, the predefined constants R_G0 ... R_G7,
R_O0 ... R_O7, R_L0 ... R_L7, R_I0 ... R_I7, R_PC, R_nPC, and R_Y
can be used as indices to refer to the corresponding registers;
previous register windows can be read from their overflow locations
on the stack (however, see the gwindows file in the
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid subdirectory).
SPARC V8 (32-bit)
For SPARC V8 (32-bit) controlling processes, the predefined con‐
stants R_PSR, R_WIM, and R_TBR can be used as indices to refer to
the corresponding special registers. For SPARC V9 (64-bit) control‐
ling processes, the predefined constants R_CCR, R_ASI, and R_FPRS
can be used as indices to refer to the corresponding special regis‐
ters.
x86 (32-bit)
For 32-bit x86 processes, the predefined constants listed belowcan
be used as indices to refer to the corresponding registers.
SS
UESP
EFL
CS
EIP
ERR
TRAPNO
EAX
ECX
EDX
EBX
ESP
EBP
ESI
EDI
DS
ES
GS
The preceding constants are listed in <sys/regset.h>.
Note that a 32-bit process can run on an x86 64-bit system, using
the constants listed above.
x86 (64-bit)
To read the registers of a 32- or a 64-bit process, a 64-bit x86
process should use the predefined constants listed below.
REG_GSBASE
REG_FSBASE
REG_DS
REG_ES
REG_GS
REG_FS
REG_SS
REG_RSP
REG_RFL
REG_CS
REG_RIP
REG_ERR
REG_TRAPNO
REG_RAX
REG_RCX
REG_RDX
REG_RBX
REG_RBP
REG_RSI
REG_RDI
REG_R8
REG_R9
REG_R10
REG_R11
REG_R12
REG_R13
REG_R14
REG_R15
The preceding constants are listed in <sys/regset.h>.
pr_fpreg is a structure holding the contents of the floating-point reg‐
isters.
SPARC registers, both general and floating-point, as seen by a 64-bit
controlling process are the V9 versions of the registers, even if the
target process is a 32-bit (V8) process. V8 registers are a subset of
the V9 registers.
If the lwp is not stopped, all register values are undefined.
psinfo
Contains miscellaneous information about the process and the represen‐
tative lwp needed by the ps(1) command. psinfo remains accessible after
a process becomes a zombie. The file contains a psinfo structure which
contains an embedded lwpsinfo structure for the representative lwp, as
follows:
typedef struct psinfo {
int pr_flag; /* process flags (DEPRECATED: see below) */
int pr_nlwp; /* number of active lwps in the process */
int pr_nzomb; /* number of zombie lwps in the process */
pid_t pr_pid; /* process id */
pid_t pr_ppid; /* process id of parent */
pid_t pr_pgid; /* process id of process group leader */
pid_t pr_sid; /* session id */
uid_t pr_uid; /* real user id */
uid_t pr_euid; /* effective user id */
gid_t pr_gid; /* real group id */
gid_t pr_egid; /* effective group id */
uintptr_t pr_addr; /* address of process */
size_t pr_size; /* size of process image in Kbytes */
size_t pr_rssize; /* resident set size in Kbytes */
dev_t pr_ttydev; /* controlling tty device (or PRNODEV) */
ushort_t pr_pctcpu; /* % of recent cpu time used by all lwps */
ushort_t pr_pctmem; /* % of system memory used by process */
timestruc_t pr_start; /* process start time, from the epoch */
timestruc_t pr_time; /* cpu time for this process */
timestruc_t pr_ctime; /* cpu time for reaped children */
char pr_fname[PRFNSZ]; /* name of exec'ed file */
char pr_psargs[PRARGSZ]; /* initial characters of arg list */
int pr_wstat; /* if zombie, the wait() status */
int pr_argc; /* initial argument count */
uintptr_t pr_argv; /* address of initial argument vector */
uintptr_t pr_envp; /* address of initial environment vector */
char pr_dmodel; /* data model of the process */
lwpsinfo_t pr_lwp; /* information for representative lwp */
taskid_t pr_taskid; /* task id */
projid_t pr_projid; /* project id */
poolid_t pr_poolid; /* pool id */
zoneid_t pr_zoneid; /* zone id */
ctid_t pr_contract; /* process contract id */
} psinfo_t;
Some of the entries in psinfo, such as pr_addr, refer to internal ker‐
nel data structures and should not be expected to retain their meanings
across different versions of the operating system.
psinfo_t.pr_flag is a deprecated interface that should no longer be
used. Applications currently relying on the SSYS bit in pr_flag should
migrate to checking PR_ISSYS in the pstatus structure's pr_flags field.
pr_pctcpu and pr_pctmem are 16-bit binary fractions in the range 0.0 to
1.0 with the binary point to the right of the high-order bit (1.0 ==
0x8000). pr_pctcpu is the summation over all lwps in the process.
pr_lwp contains the ps(1) information for the representative lwp. If
the process is a zombie, pr_nlwp, pr_nzomb, and pr_lwp.pr_lwpid are
zero and the other fields of pr_lwp are undefined:
typedef struct lwpsinfo {
int pr_flag; /* lwp flags (DEPRECATED: see below) */
id_t pr_lwpid; /* lwp id */
uintptr_t pr_addr; /* internal address of lwp */
uintptr_t pr_wchan; /* wait addr for sleeping lwp */
char pr_stype; /* synchronization event type */
char pr_state; /* numeric lwp state */
char pr_sname; /* printable character for pr_state */
char pr_nice; /* nice for cpu usage */
short pr_syscall; /* system call number (if in syscall) */
char pr_oldpri; /* pre-SVR4, low value is high priority */
char pr_cpu; /* pre-SVR4, cpu usage for scheduling */
int pr_pri; /* priority, high value = high priority */
ushort_t pr_pctcpu; /* % of recent cpu time used by this lwp */
timestruc_t pr_start; /* lwp start time, from the epoch */
timestruc_t pr_time; /* cpu time for this lwp */
char pr_clname[PRCLSZ]; /* scheduling class name */
char pr_name[PRFNSZ]; /* name of system lwp */
processorid_t pr_onpro; /* processor which last ran this lwp */
processorid_t pr_bindpro; /* processor to which lwp is bound */
psetid_t pr_bindpset; /* processor set to which lwp is bound */
} lwpsinfo_t;
Some of the entries in lwpsinfo, such as pr_addr, pr_wchan, pr_stype,
pr_state, and pr_name, refer to internal kernel data structures and
should not be expected to retain their meanings across different ver‐
sions of the operating system.
lwpsinfo_t.pr_flag is a deprecated interface that should no longer be
used.
pr_pctcpu is a 16-bit binary fraction, as described above. It repre‐
sents the CPU time used by the specific lwp. On a multi-processor
machine, the maximum value is 1/N, where N is the number of CPUs.
pr_contract is the id of the process contract of which the process is a
member. See contract(4) and process(4).
cred
Contains a description of the credentials associated with the process:
typedef struct prcred {
uid_t pr_euid; /* effective user id */
uid_t pr_ruid; /* real user id */
uid_t pr_suid; /* saved user id (from exec) */
gid_t pr_egid; /* effective group id */
gid_t pr_rgid; /* real group id */
gid_t pr_sgid; /* saved group id (from exec) */
int pr_ngroups; /* number of supplementary groups */
gid_t pr_groups[1]; /* array of supplementary groups */
} prcred_t;
The array of associated supplementary groups in pr_groups is of vari‐
able length; the cred file contains all of the supplementary groups.
pr_ngroups indicates the number of supplementary groups. (See also the
PCSCRED and PCSCREDX control operations.)
priv
Contains a description of the privileges associated with the process:
typedef struct prpriv {
uint32_t pr_nsets; /* number of privilege set */
uint32_t pr_setsize; /* size of privilege set */
uint32_t pr_infosize; /* size of supplementary data */
priv_chunk_t pr_sets[1]; /* array of sets */
} prpriv_t;
The actual dimension of the pr_sets[] field is
pr_sets[pr_nsets][pr_setsize]
which is followed by additional information about the process state
pr_infosize bytes in size.
The full size of the structure can be computed using
PRIV_PRPRIV_SIZE(prpriv_t *).
sigact
Contains an array of sigaction structures describing the current dispo‐
sitions of all signals associated with the traced process (see sigac‐
tion(2)). Signal numbers are displaced by 1 from array indices, so that
the action for signal number n appears in position n-1 of the array.
auxv
Contains the initial values of the process's aux vector in an array of
auxv_t structures (see <sys/auxv.h>). The values are those that were
passed by the operating system as startup information to the dynamic
linker.
ldt
This file exists only on x86-based machines. It is non-empty only if
the process has established a local descriptor table (LDT). If non-
empty, the file contains the array of currently active LDT entries in
an array of elements of type struct ssd, defined in <sys/sysi86.h>, one
element for each active LDT entry.
map
Contains information about the virtual address map of the process. The
file contains an array of prmap structures, each of which describes a
contiguous virtual address region in the address space of the traced
process:
typedef struct prmap {
uintptr_tpr_vaddr; /* virtual address of mapping */
size_t pr_size; /* size of mapping in bytes */
char pr_mapname[PRMAPSZ]; /* name in /proc/pid/object */
offset_t pr_offset; /* offset into mapped object, if any */
int pr_mflags; /* protection and attribute flags */
int pr_pagesize; /* pagesize for this mapping in bytes */
int pr_shmid; /* SysV shared memory identifier */
} prmap_t;
pr_vaddr is the virtual address of the mapping within the traced
process and pr_size is its size in bytes. pr_mapname, if it does not
contain a null string, contains the name of a file in the object direc‐
tory (see below) that can be opened read-only to obtain a file descrip‐
tor for the mapped file associated with the mapping. This enables a
debugger to find object file symbol tables without having to know the
real path names of the executable file and shared libraries of the
process. pr_offset is the 64-bit offset within the mapped file (if any)
to which the virtual address is mapped.
pr_mflags is a bit-mask of protection and attribute flags:
MA_READ mapping is readable by the traced process.
MA_WRITE mapping is writable by the traced process.
MA_EXEC mapping is executable by the traced process.
MA_SHARED mapping changes are shared by the mapped object.
MA_ISM mapping is intimate shared memory (shared MMU
resources)
MAP_NORESERVE mapping does not have swap space reserved (mapped
with MAP_NORESERVE)
MA_SHM mapping System V shared memory
A contiguous area of the address space having the same underlying
mapped object may appear as multiple mappings due to varying read,
write, and execute attributes. The underlying mapped object does not
change over the range of a single mapping. An I/O operation to a map‐
ping marked MA_SHARED fails if applied at a virtual address not corre‐
sponding to a valid page in the underlying mapped object. A write to a
MA_SHARED mapping that is not marked MA_WRITE fails. Reads and writes
to private mappings always succeed. Reads and writes to unmapped
addresses fail.
pr_pagesize is the page size for the mapping, currently always the sys‐
tem pagesize.
pr_shmid is the shared memory identifier, if any, for the mapping. Its
value is −1 if the mapping is not System V shared memory. See
shmget(2).
rmap
Contains information about the reserved address ranges of the process.
The file contains an array of prmap structures, as defined above for
the map file. Each structure describes a contiguous virtual address
region in the address space of the traced process that is reserved by
the system in the sense that an mmap(2) system call that does not spec‐
ify MAP_FIXED will not use any part of it for the new mapping. Examples
of such reservations include the address ranges reserved for the
process stack and the individual thread stacks of a multi-threaded
process.
cwd
A symbolic link to the process's current working directory. See
chdir(2). A readlink(2) of /proc/pid/cwd yields a null string. However,
it can be opened, listed, and searched as a directory, and can be the
target of chdir(2).
root
A symbolic link to the process's root directory. /proc/pid/root can
differ from the system root directory if the process or one of its
ancestors executed chroot(2) as super user. It has the same semantics
as /proc/pid/cwd.
fd
A directory containing references to the open files of the process.
Each entry is a decimal number corresponding to an open file descriptor
in the process.
If an entry refers to a regular file, it can be opened with normal file
system semantics but, to ensure that the controlling process cannot
gain greater access than the controlled process, with no file access
modes other than its read/write open modes in the controlled process.
If an entry refers to a directory, it can be accessed with the same
semantics as /proc/pid/cwd. An attempt to open any other type of entry
fails with EACCES.
object
A directory containing read-only files with names corresponding to the
pr_mapname entries in the map and pagedata files. Opening such a file
yields a file descriptor for the underlying mapped file associated with
an address-space mapping in the process. The file name a.out appears in
the directory as an alias for the process's executable file.
The object directory makes it possible for a controlling process to
gain access to the object file and any shared libraries (and conse‐
quently the symbol tables) without having to know the actual path names
of the executable files.
path
A directory containing symbolic links to files opened by the process.
The directory includes one entry for cwd and root. The directory also
contains a numerical entry for each file descriptor in the fd direc‐
tory, and entries matching those in the object directory. If this
information is not avilable, any attempt to read the contents of the
symbolic link will fail. This is most common for files that do not
exist in the filesystem namespace (such as FIFOs and sockets), but can
also happen for regular files. For the file descriptor entries, the
path may be different from the one used by the process to open the
file.
pagedata
Opening the page data file enables tracking of address space references
and modifications on a per-page basis.
A read(2) of the page data file descriptor returns structured page data
and atomically clears the page data maintained for the file by the sys‐
tem. That is to say, each read returns data collected since the last
read; the first read returns data collected since the file was opened.
When the call completes, the read buffer contains the following struc‐
ture as its header and thereafter contains a number of section header
structures and associated byte arrays that must be accessed by walking
linearly through the buffer.
typedef struct prpageheader {
timestruc_t pr_tstamp; /* real time stamp, time of read() */
ulong_t pr_nmap; /* number of address space mappings */
ulong_t pr_npage; /* total number of pages */
} prpageheader_t;
The header is followed by pr_nmap prasmap structures and associated
data arrays. The prasmap structure contains the following elements:
typedef struct prasmap {
uintptr_t pr_vaddr; /* virtual address of mapping */
ulong_t pr_npage; /* number of pages in mapping */
char pr_mapname[PRMAPSZ]; /* name in /proc/pid/object */
offset_t pr_offset; /* offset into mapped object, if any */
int pr_mflags; /* protection and attribute flags */
int pr_pagesize; /* pagesize for this mapping in bytes */
int pr_shmid; /* SysV shared memory identifier */
} prasmap_t;
Each section header is followed by pr_npage bytes, one byte for each
page in the mapping, plus 0-7 null bytes at the end so that the next
prasmap structure begins on an eight-byte aligned boundary. Each data
byte may contain these flags:
PG_REFERENCED page has been referenced.
PG_MODIFIED page has been modified.
If the read buffer is not large enough to contain all of the page data,
the read fails with E2BIG and the page data is not cleared. The
required size of the read buffer can be determined through fstat(2).
Application of lseek(2) to the page data file descriptor is ineffec‐
tive; every read starts from the beginning of the file. Closing the
page data file descriptor terminates the system overhead associated
with collecting the data.
More than one page data file descriptor for the same process can be
opened, up to a system-imposed limit per traced process. A read of one
does not affect the data being collected by the system for the others.
An open of the page data file will fail with ENOMEM if the system-
imposed limit would be exceeded.
watch
Contains an array of prwatch structures, one for each watched area
established by the PCWATCH control operation. See PCWATCH for details.
usage
Contains process usage information described by a prusage structure
which contains at least the following fields:
typedef struct prusage {
id_t pr_lwpid; /* lwp id. 0: process or defunct */
int pr_count; /* number of contributing lwps */
timestruc_t pr_tstamp; /* real time stamp, time of read() */
timestruc_t pr_create; /* process/lwp creation time stamp */
timestruc_t pr_term; /* process/lwp termination time stamp */
timestruc_t pr_rtime; /* total lwp real (elapsed) time */
timestruc_t pr_utime; /* user level CPU time */
timestruc_t pr_stime; /* system call CPU time */
timestruc_t pr_ttime; /* other system trap CPU time */
timestruc_t pr_tftime; /* text page fault sleep time */
timestruc_t pr_dftime; /* data page fault sleep time */
timestruc_t pr_kftime; /* kernel page fault sleep time */
timestruc_t pr_ltime; /* user lock wait sleep time */
timestruc_t pr_slptime; /* all other sleep time */
timestruc_t pr_wtime; /* wait-cpu (latency) time */
timestruc_t pr_stoptime; /* stopped time */
ulong_t pr_minf; /* minor page faults */
ulong_t pr_majf; /* major page faults */
ulong_t pr_nswap; /* swaps */
ulong_t pr_inblk; /* input blocks */
ulong_t pr_oublk; /* output blocks */
ulong_t pr_msnd; /* messages sent */
ulong_t pr_mrcv; /* messages received */
ulong_t pr_sigs; /* signals received */
ulong_t pr_vctx; /* voluntary context switches */
ulong_t pr_ictx; /* involuntary context switches */
ulong_t pr_sysc; /* system calls */
ulong_t pr_ioch; /* chars read and written */
} prusage_t;
Microstate accounting is now continuously enabled. While this informa‐
tion was previously an estimate, if microstate accounting were not
enabled, the current information is now never an estimate represents
time the process has spent in various states.
lstatus
Contains a prheader structure followed by an array of lwpstatus struc‐
tures, one for each active lwp in the process (see also
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/lwpstatus, below). The prheader structure describes
the number and size of the array entries that follow.
typedef struct prheader {
long pr_nent; /* number of entries */
size_t pr_entsize; /* size of each entry, in bytes */
} prheader_t;
The lwpstatus structure may grow by the addition of elements at the end
in future releases of the system. Programs must use pr_entsize in the
file header to index through the array. These comments apply to all
/proc files that include a prheader structure (lpsinfo and lusage,
below).
lpsinfo
Contains a prheader structure followed by an array of lwpsinfo struc‐
tures, one for eachactive and zombie lwp in the process. See also
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/lwpsinfo, below.
lusage
Contains a prheader structure followed by an array of prusage struc‐
tures, one for each active lwp in the process, plus an additional ele‐
ment at the beginning that contains the summation over all defunct lwps
(lwps that once existed but no longer exist in the process). Excluding
the pr_lwpid, pr_tstamp, pr_create, and pr_term entries, the entry-by-
entry summation over all these structures is the definition of the
process usage information obtained from the usage file. (See also
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/lwpusage, below.)
lwp
A directory containing entries each of which names an active or zombie
lwp within the process. These entries are themselves directories con‐
taining additional files as described below. Only the lwpsinfo file
exists in the directory of a zombie lwp.
STRUCTURE OF /proc/pid/lwp/ lwpid
A given directory /proc/pid/lwp/lwpid contains the following entries:
lwpctl
Write-only control file. The messages written to this file affect the
specific lwp rather than the representative lwp, as is the case for the
process's ctl file.
lwpstatus
lwp-specific state information. This file contains the lwpstatus struc‐
ture for the specific lwp as described above for the representative lwp
in the process's status file.
lwpsinfo
lwp-specific ps(1) information. This file contains the lwpsinfo struc‐
ture for the specific lwp as described above for the representative lwp
in the process's psinfo file. The lwpsinfo file remains accessible
after an lwp becomes a zombie.
lwpusage
This file contains the prusage structure for the specific lwp as
described above for the process's usage file.
gwindows
This file exists only on SPARC based machines. If it is non-empty, it
contains a gwindows_t structure, defined in <sys/regset.h>, with the
values of those SPARC register windows that could not be stored on the
stack when the lwp stopped. Conditions under which register windows are
not stored on the stack are: the stack pointer refers to nonexistent
process memory or the stack pointer is improperly aligned. If the lwp
is not stopped or if there are no register windows that could not be
stored on the stack, the file is empty (the usual case).
xregs
Extra state registers. The extra state register set is architecture
dependent; this file is empty if the system does not support extra
state registers. If the file is non-empty, it contains an architecture
dependent structure of type prxregset_t, defined in <procfs.h>, with
the values of the lwp's extra state registers. If the lwp is not
stopped, all register values are undefined. See also the PCSXREG con‐
trol operation, below.
asrs
This file exists only for 64-bit SPARC V9 processes. It contains an
asrset_t structure, defined in <sys/regset.h>, containing the values of
the lwp's platform-dependent ancillary state registers. If the lwp is
not stopped, all register values are undefined. See also the PCSASRS
control operation, below.
templates
A directory which contains references to the active templates for the
lwp, named by the contract type. Changes made to an active template
descriptor do not affect the original template which was activated,
though they do affect the active template. It is not possible to acti‐
vate an active template descriptor. See contract(4).
CONTROL MESSAGES
Process state changes are effected through messages written to a
process's ctl file or to an individual lwp's lwpctl file. All control
messages consist of a long that names the specific operation followed
by additional data containing the operand, if any.
Multiple control messages may be combined in a single write(2) (or
writev(2)) to a control file, but no partial writes are permitted. That
is, each control message, operation code plus operand, if any, must be
presented in its entirety to the write(2) and not in pieces over sev‐
eral system calls. If a control operation fails, no subsequent opera‐
tions contained in the same write(2) are attempted.
Descriptions of the allowable control messages follow. In all cases,
writing a message to a control file for a process or lwp that has ter‐
minated elicits the error ENOENT.
PCSTOP PCDSTOP PCWSTOP PCTWSTOP
When applied to the process control file, PCSTOP directs all lwps to
stop and waits for them to stop, PCDSTOP directs all lwps to stop with‐
out waiting for them to stop, and PCWSTOP simply waits for all lwps to
stop. When applied to an lwp control file, PCSTOP directs the specific
lwp to stop and waits until it has stopped, PCDSTOP directs the spe‐
cific lwp to stop without waiting for it to stop, and PCWSTOP simply
waits for the specific lwp to stop. When applied to an lwp control
file, PCSTOP and PCWSTOP complete when the lwp stops on an event of
interest, immediately if already so stopped; when applied to the
process control file, they complete when every lwp has stopped either
on an event of interest or on a PR_SUSPENDED stop.
PCTWSTOP is identical to PCWSTOP except that it enables the operation
to time out, to avoid waiting forever for a process or lwp that may
never stop on an event of interest. PCTWSTOP takes a long operand spec‐
ifying a number of milliseconds; the wait will terminate successfully
after the specified number of milliseconds even if the process or lwp
has not stopped; a timeout value of zero makes the operation identical
to PCWSTOP.
An ``event of interest'' is either a PR_REQUESTED stop or a stop that
has been specified in the process's tracing flags (set by PCSTRACE,
PCSFAULT, PCSENTRY, and PCSEXIT). PR_JOBCONTROL and PR_SUSPENDED stops
are specifically not events of interest. (An lwp may stop twice due to
a stop signal, first showing PR_SIGNALLED if the signal is traced and
again showing PR_JOBCONTROL if the lwp is set running without clearing
the signal.) If PCSTOP or PCDSTOP is applied to an lwp that is stopped,
but not on an event of interest, the stop directive takes effect when
the lwp is restarted by the competing mechanism. At that time, the lwp
enters a PR_REQUESTED stop before executing any user-level code.
A write of a control message that blocks is interruptible by a signal
so that, for example, an alarm(2) can be set to avoid waiting forever
for a process or lwp that may never stop on an event of interest. If
PCSTOP is interrupted, the lwp stop directives remain in effect even
though the write(2) returns an error. (Use of PCTWSTOP with a non-zero
timeout is recommended over PCWSTOP with an alarm(2).)
A system process (indicated by the PR_ISSYS flag) never executes at
user level, has no user-level address space visible through /proc, and
cannot be stopped. Applying one of these operations to a system process
or any of its lwps elicits the error EBUSY.
PCRUN
Make an lwp runnable again after a stop. This operation takes a long
operand containing zero or more of the following flags:
PRCSIG clears the current signal, if any (see PCCSIG).
PRCFAULT clears the current fault, if any (see PCCFAULT).
PRSTEP directs the lwp to execute a single machine
instruction. On completion of the instruction, a
trace trap occurs. If FLTTRACE is being traced, the
lwp stops; otherwise, it is sent SIGTRAP. If SIG‐
TRAP is being traced and is not blocked, the lwp
stops. When the lwp stops on an event of interest,
the single-step directive is cancelled, even if the
stop occurs before the instruction is executed.
This operation requires hardware and operating sys‐
tem support and may not be implemented on all pro‐
cessors. It is implemented on SPARC and x86-based
machines.
PRSABORT is meaningful only if the lwp is in a PR_SYSENTRY
stop or is marked PR_ASLEEP; it instructs the lwp
to abort execution of the system call (see PCSENTRY
and PCSEXIT).
PRSTOP directs the lwp to stop again as soon as possible
after resuming execution (see PCDSTOP). In particu‐
lar, if the lwp is stopped on PR_SIGNALLED or
PR_FAULTED, the next stop will show PR_REQUESTED,
no other stop will have intervened, and the lwp
will not have executed any user-level code.
When applied to an lwp control file, PCRUN clears any outstanding
directed-stop request and makes the specific lwp runnable. The opera‐
tion fails with EBUSY if the specific lwp is not stopped on an event of
interest or has not been directed to stop or if the agent lwp exists
and this is not the agent lwp (see PCAGENT).
When applied to the process control file, a representative lwp is cho‐
sen for the operation as described for /proc/pid/status. The operation
fails with EBUSY if the representative lwp is not stopped on an event
of interest or has not been directed to stop or if the agent lwp
exists. If PRSTEP or PRSTOP was requested, the representative lwp is
made runnable and its outstanding directed-stop request is cleared;
otherwise all outstanding directed-stop requests are cleared and, if it
was stopped on an event of interest, the representative lwp is marked
PR_REQUESTED. If, as a consequence, all lwps are in the PR_REQUESTED or
PR_SUSPENDED stop state, all lwps showing PR_REQUESTED are made
runnable.
PCSTRACE
Define a set of signals to be traced in the process. The receipt of one
of these signals by an lwp causes the lwp to stop. The set of signals
is defined using an operand sigset_t contained in the control message.
Receipt of SIGKILL cannot be traced; if specified, it is silently
ignored.
If a signal that is included in an lwp's held signal set (the signal
mask) is sent to the lwp, the signal is not received and does not cause
a stop until it is removed from the held signal set, either by the lwp
itself or by setting the held signal set with PCSHOLD.
PCCSIG
The current signal, if any, is cleared from the specific or representa‐
tive lwp.
PCSSIG
The current signal and its associated signal information for the spe‐
cific or representative lwp are set according to the contents of the
operand siginfo structure (see <sys/siginfo.h>). If the specified sig‐
nal number is zero, the current signal is cleared. The semantics of
this operation are different from those of kill(2) in that the signal
is delivered to the lwp immediately after execution is resumed (even if
it is being blocked) and an additional PR_SIGNALLED stop does not
intervene even if the signal is traced. Setting the current signal to
SIGKILL terminates the process immediately.
PCKILL
If applied to the process control file, a signal is sent to the process
with semantics identical to those of kill(2). If applied to an lwp con‐
trol file, a directed signal is sent to the specific lwp. The signal is
named in a long operand contained in the message. Sending SIGKILL ter‐
minates the process immediately.
PCUNKILL
A signal is deleted, that is, it is removed from the set of pending
signals. If applied to the process control file, the signal is deleted
from the process's pending signals. If applied to an lwp control file,
the signal is deleted from the lwp's pending signals. The current sig‐
nal (if any) is unaffected. The signal is named in a long operand in
the control message. It is an error (EINVAL) to attempt to delete
SIGKILL.
PCSHOLD
Set the set of held signals for the specific or representative lwp
(signals whose delivery will be blocked if sent to the lwp). The set of
signals is specified with a sigset_t operand. SIGKILL and SIGSTOP can‐
not be held; if specified, they are silently ignored.
PCSFAULT
Define a set of hardware faults to be traced in the process. On incur‐
ring one of these faults, an lwp stops. The set is defined via the op‐
erand fltset_t structure. Fault names are defined in <sys/fault.h> and
include the following. Some of these may not occur on all processors;
there may be processor-specific faults in addition to these.
FLTILL illegal instruction
FLTPRIV privileged instruction
FLTBPT breakpoint trap
FLTTRACE trace trap (single-step)
FLTWATCH watchpoint trap
FLTACCESS memory access fault (bus error)
FLTBOUNDS memory bounds violation
FLTIOVF integer overflow
FLTIZDIV integer zero divide
FLTFPE floating-point exception
FLTSTACK unrecoverable stack fault
FLTPAGE recoverable page fault
When not traced, a fault normally results in the posting of a signal to
the lwp that incurred the fault. If an lwp stops on a fault, the signal
is posted to the lwp when execution is resumed unless the fault is
cleared by PCCFAULT or by the PRCFAULT option of PCRUN. FLTPAGE is an
exception; no signal is posted. The pr_info field in the lwpstatus
structure identifies the signal to be sent and contains machine-spe‐
cific information about the fault.
PCCFAULT
The current fault, if any, is cleared; the associated signal will not
be sent to the specific or representative lwp.
PCSENTRY PCSEXIT
These control operations instruct the process's lwps to stop on entry
to or exit from specified system calls. The set of system calls to be
traced is defined via an operand sysset_t structure.
When entry to a system call is being traced, an lwp stops after having
begun the call to the system but before the system call arguments have
been fetched from the lwp. When exit from a system call is being
traced, an lwp stops on completion of the system call just prior to
checking for signals and returning to user level. At this point, all
return values have been stored into the lwp's registers.
If an lwp is stopped on entry to a system call (PR_SYSENTRY) or when
sleeping in an interruptible system call (PR_ASLEEP is set), it may be
instructed to go directly to system call exit by specifying the
PRSABORT flag in a PCRUN control message. Unless exit from the system
call is being traced, the lwp returns to user level showing EINTR.
PCWATCH
Set or clear a watched area in the controlled process from a prwatch
structure operand:
typedef struct prwatch {
uintptr_t pr_vaddr; /* virtual address of watched area */
size_t pr_size; /* size of watched area in bytes */
int pr_wflags; /* watch type flags */
} prwatch_t;
pr_vaddr specifies the virtual address of an area of memory to be
watched in the controlled process. pr_size specifies the size of the
area, in bytes. pr_wflags specifies the type of memory access to be
monitored as a bit-mask of the following flags:
WA_READ read access
WA_WRITE write access
WA_EXEC execution access
WA_TRAPAFTER trap after the instruction completes
If pr_wflags is non-empty, a watched area is established for the vir‐
tual address range specified by pr_vaddr and pr_size. If pr_wflags is
empty, any previously-established watched area starting at the speci‐
fied virtual address is cleared; pr_size is ignored.
A watchpoint is triggered when an lwp in the traced process makes a
memory reference that covers at least one byte of a watched area and
the memory reference is as specified in pr_wflags. When an lwp triggers
a watchpoint, it incurs a watchpoint trap. If FLTWATCH is being traced,
the lwp stops; otherwise, it is sent a SIGTRAP signal; if SIGTRAP is
being traced and is not blocked, the lwp stops.
The watchpoint trap occurs before the instruction completes unless
WA_TRAPAFTER was specified, in which case it occurs after the instruc‐
tion completes. If it occurs before completion, the memory is not modi‐
fied. If it occurs after completion, the memory is modified (if the
access is a write access).
Physical i/o is an exception for watchpoint traps. In this instance,
there is no guarantee that memory before the watched area has already
been modified (or in the case of WA_TRAPAFTER, that the memory follow‐
ing the watched area has not been modified) when the watchpoint trap
occurs and the lwp stops.
pr_info in the lwpstatus structure contains information pertinent to
the watchpoint trap. In particular, the si_addr field contains the vir‐
tual address of the memory reference that triggered the watchpoint, and
the si_code field contains one of TRAP_RWATCH, TRAP_WWATCH, or
TRAP_XWATCH, indicating read, write, or execute access, respectively.
The si_trapafter field is zero unless WA_TRAPAFTER is in effect for
this watched area; non-zero indicates that the current instruction is
not the instruction that incurred the watchpoint trap. The si_pc field
contains the virtual address of the instruction that incurred the trap.
A watchpoint trap may be triggered while executing a system call that
makes reference to the traced process's memory. The lwp that is execut‐
ing the system call incurs the watchpoint trap while still in the sys‐
tem call. If it stops as a result, the lwpstatus structure contains the
system call number and its arguments. If the lwp does not stop, or if
it is set running again without clearing the signal or fault, the sys‐
tem call fails with EFAULT. If WA_TRAPAFTER was specified, the memory
reference will have completed and the memory will have been modified
(if the access was a write access) when the watchpoint trap occurs.
If more than one of WA_READ, WA_WRITE, and WA_EXEC is specified for a
watched area, and a single instruction incurs more than one of the
specified types, only one is reported when the watchpoint trap occurs.
The precedence is WA_EXEC, WA_READ, WA_WRITE (WA_EXEC and WA_READ take
precedence over WA_WRITE), unless WA_TRAPAFTER was specified, in which
case it is WA_WRITE, WA_READ, WA_EXEC (WA_WRITE takes precedence).
PCWATCH fails with EINVAL if an attempt is made to specify overlapping
watched areas or if pr_wflags contains flags other than those specified
above. It fails with ENOMEM if an attempt is made to establish more
watched areas than the system can support (the system can support thou‐
sands).
The child of a vfork(2) borrows the parent's address space. When a
vfork(2) is executed by a traced process, all watched areas established
for the parent are suspended until the child terminates or performs an
exec(2). Any watched areas established independently in the child are
cancelled when the parent resumes after the child's termination or
exec(2). PCWATCH fails with EBUSY if applied to the parent of a
vfork(2) before the child has terminated or performed an exec(2). The
PR_VFORKP flag is set in the pstatus structure for such a parent
process.
Certain accesses of the traced process's address space by the operating
system are immune to watchpoints. The initial construction of a signal
stack frame when a signal is delivered to an lwp will not trigger a
watchpoint trap even if the new frame covers watched areas of the
stack. Once the signal handler is entered, watchpoint traps occur nor‐
mally. On SPARC based machines, register window overflow and underflow
will not trigger watchpoint traps, even if the register window save
areas cover watched areas of the stack.
Watched areas are not inherited by child processes, even if the traced
process's inherit-on-fork mode, PR_FORK, is set (see PCSET, below). All
watched areas are cancelled when the traced process performs a success‐
ful exec(2).
PCSET PCUNSET
PCSET sets one or more modes of operation for the traced process. PCUN‐
SET unsets these modes. The modes to be set or unset are specified by
flags in an operand long in the control message:
PR_FORK (inherit-on-fork): When set, the process's tracing
flags and its inherit-on-fork mode are inherited by
the child of a fork(2), fork1(2), or vfork(2). When
unset, child processes start with all tracing flags
cleared.
PR_RLC (run-on-last-close): When set and the last writable
/proc file descriptor referring to the traced
process or any of its lwps is closed, all of the
process's tracing flags and watched areas are
cleared, any outstanding stop directives are can‐
celed, and if any lwps are stopped on events of
interest, they are set running as though PCRUN had
been applied to them. When unset, the process's
tracing flags and watched areas are retained and
lwps are not set running on last close.
PR_KLC (kill-on-last-close): When set and the last
writable /proc file descriptor referring to the
traced process or any of its lwps is closed, the
process is terminated with SIGKILL.
PR_ASYNC (asynchronous-stop): When set, a stop on an event
of interest by one lwp does not directly affect any
other lwp in the process. When unset and an lwp
stops on an event of interest other than
PR_REQUESTED, all other lwps in the process are
directed to stop.
PR_MSACCT (microstate accounting): Microstate accounting is
now continuously enabled. This flag is deprecated
and no longer has any effect upon microstate
accounting. Applications may toggle this flag; how‐
ever, microstate accounting will remain enabled
regardless.
PR_MSFORK (inherit microstate accounting): All processes now
inherit microstate accounting, as it is continu‐
ously enabled. This flag has been deprecated and
its use no longer has any effect upon the behavior
of microstate accounting.
PR_BPTADJ (breakpoint trap pc adjustment): On x86-based
machines, a breakpoint trap leaves the program
counter (the EIP) referring to the breakpointed
instruction plus one byte. When PR_BPTADJ is set,
the system will adjust the program counter back to
the location of the breakpointed instruction when
the lwp stops on a breakpoint. This flag has no
effect on SPARC based machines, where breakpoint
traps leave the program counter referring to the
breakpointed instruction.
PR_PTRACE (ptrace-compatibility): When set, a stop on an
event of interest by the traced process is reported
to the parent of the traced process by wait(3C),
SIGTRAP is sent to the traced process when it exe‐
cutes a successful exec(2), setuid/setgid flags are
not honored for execs performed by the traced
process, any exec of an object file that the traced
process cannot read fails, and the process dies
when its parent dies. This mode is deprecated; it
is provided only to allow ptrace(3C) to be imple‐
mented as a library function using /proc.
It is an error (EINVAL) to specify flags other than those described
above or to apply these operations to a system process. The current
modes are reported in the pr_flags field of /proc/pid/status and
/proc/pid/lwp/lwp/lwpstatus.
PCSREG
Set the general registers for the specific or representative lwp
according to the operand prgregset_t structure.
On SPARC based systems, only the condition-code bits of the processor-
status register (R_PSR) of SPARC V8 (32-bit) processes can be modified
by PCSREG. Other privileged registers cannot be modified at all.
On x86-based systems, only certain bits of the flags register (EFL) can
be modified by PCSREG: these include the condition codes, direction-
bit, and overflow-bit.
PCSREG fails with EBUSY if the lwp is not stopped on an event of inter‐
est.
PCSVADDR
Set the address at which execution will resume for the specific or rep‐
resentative lwp from the operand long. On SPARC based systems, both %pc
and %npc are set, with %npc set to the instruction following the vir‐
tual address. On x86-based systems, only %eip is set. PCSVADDR fails
with EBUSY if the lwp is not stopped on an event of interest.
PCSFPREG
Set the floating-point registers for the specific or representative lwp
according to the operand prfpregset_t structure. An error (EINVAL) is
returned if the system does not support floating-point operations (no
floating-point hardware and the system does not emulate floating-point
machine instructions). PCSFPREG fails with EBUSY if the lwp is not
stopped on an event of interest.
PCSXREG
Set the extra state registers for the specific or representative lwp
according to the architecture-dependent operand prxregset_t structure.
An error (EINVAL) is returned if the system does not support extra
state registers. PCSXREG fails with EBUSY if the lwp is not stopped on
an event of interest.
PCSASRS
Set the ancillary state registers for the specific or representative
lwp according to the SPARC V9 platform-dependent operand asrset_t
structure. An error (EINVAL) is returned if either the target process
or the controlling process is not a 64-bit SPARC V9 process. Most of
the ancillary state registers are privileged registers that cannot be
modified. Only those that can be modified are set; all others are
silently ignored. PCSASRS fails with EBUSY if the lwp is not stopped on
an event of interest.
PCAGENT
Create an agent lwp in the controlled process with register values from
the operand prgregset_t structure (see PCSREG, above). The agent lwp is
created in the stopped state showing PR_REQUESTED and with its held
signal set (the signal mask) having all signals except SIGKILL and
SIGSTOP blocked.
The PCAGENT operation fails with EBUSY unless the process is fully
stopped via /proc, that is, unless all of the lwps in the process are
stopped either on events of interest or on PR_SUSPENDED, or are stopped
on PR_JOBCONTROL and have been directed to stop via PCDSTOP. It fails
with EBUSY if an agent lwp already exists. It fails with ENOMEM if sys‐
tem resources for creating new lwps have been exhausted.
Any PCRUN operation applied to the process control file or to the con‐
trol file of an lwp other than the agent lwp fails with EBUSY as long
as the agent lwp exists. The agent lwp must be caused to terminate by
executing the SYS_lwp_exit system call trap before the process can be
restarted.
Once the agent lwp is created, its lwp-ID can be found by reading the
process status file. To facilitate opening the agent lwp's control and
status files, the directory name /propc/pid/lwp/agent is accepted for
lookup operations as an invisible alias for /proc/pid/lwp/lwpid, lwpid
being the lwp-ID of the agent lwp (invisible in the sense that the name
``agent'' does not appear in a directory listing of /proc/pid/lwp
obtained from ls(1), getdents(2), or readdir(3C)).
The purpose of the agent lwp is to perform operations in the controlled
process on behalf of the controlling process: to gather information not
directly available via /proc files, or in general to make the process
change state in ways not directly available via /proc control opera‐
tions. To make use of an agent lwp, the controlling process must be
capable of making it execute system calls (specifically, the
SYS_lwp_exit system call trap). The register values given to the agent
lwp on creation are typically the registers of the representative lwp,
so that the agent lwp can use its stack.
The agent lwp is not allowed to execute any variation of the SYS_fork
or SYS_exec system call traps. Attempts to do so yield ENOTSUP to the
agent lwp.
Symbolic constants for system call trap numbers like SYS_lwp_exit and
SYS_lwp_create can be found in the header file <sys/syscall.h>.
PCREAD PCWRITE
Read or write the target process's address space via a priovec struc‐
ture operand:
typedef struct priovec {
void *pio_base; /* buffer in controlling process */
size_t pio_len; /* size of read/write request in bytes */
off_t pio_offset; /* virtual address in target process */
} priovec_t;
These operations have the same effect as pread(2) and pwrite(2),
respectively, of the target process's address space file. The differ‐
ence is that more than one PCREAD or PCWRITE control operation can be
written to the control file at once, and they can be interspersed with
other control operations in a single write to the control file. This is
useful, for example, when planting many breakpoint instructions in the
process's address space, or when stepping over a breakpointed instruc‐
tion. Unlike pread(2) and pwrite(2), no provision is made for partial
reads or writes; if the operation cannot be performed completely, it
fails with EIO.
PCNICE
The traced process's nice(2) value is incremented by the amount in the
operand long. Only a process with the {PRIV_PROC_PRIOCNTL} privilege
asserted in its effective set can better a process's priority in this
way, but any user may lower the priority. This operation is not mean‐
ingful for all scheduling classes.
PCSCRED
Set the target process credentials to the values contained in the
prcred_t structure operand (see /proc/pid/cred). The effective, real,
and saved user-IDs and group-IDs of the target process are set. The
target process's supplementary groups are not changed; the pr_ngroups
and pr_groups members of the structure operand are ignored. Only the
privileged processes can perform this operation; for all others it
fails with EPERM.
PCSCREDX
Operates like PCSCRED but also sets the supplementary groups; the
length of the data written with this control operation should be
"sizeof (prcred_t) + sizeof (gid_t) * (#groups - 1)".
PCSPRIV
Set the target process privilege to the values contained in the
prpriv_t operand (see /proc/pid/priv). The effective, permitted, inher‐
itable, and limit sets are all changed. Privilege flags can also be
set. The process is made privilege aware unless it can relinquish priv‐
ilege awareness. See privileges(5).
The limit set of the target process cannot be grown. The other privi‐
lege sets must be subsets of the intersection of the effective set of
the calling process with the new limit set of the target process or
subsets of the original values of the sets in the target process.
If any of the above restrictions are not met, EPERM is returned. If the
structure written is improperly formatted, EINVAL is returned.
PROGRAMMING NOTES
For security reasons, except for the psinfo, usage, lpsinfo, lusage,
lwpsinfo, and lwpusage files, which are world-readable, and except for
privileged processes, an open of a /proc file fails unless both the
user-ID and group-ID of the caller match those of the traced process
and the process's object file is readable by the caller. The effective
set of the caller is a superset of both the inheritable and the permit‐
ted set of the target process. The limit set of the caller is a super‐
set of the limit set of the target process. Except for the world-read‐
able files just mentioned, files corresponding to setuid and setgid
processes can be opened only by the appropriately privileged process.
A process that is missing the basic privilege {PRIV_PROC_INFO} cannot
see any processes under /proc that it cannot send a signal to.
A process that has {PRIV_PROC_OWNER} asserted in its effective set can
open any file for reading. To manipulate or control a process, the con‐
trolling process must have at least as many privileges in its effective
set as the target process has in its effective, inheritable, and per‐
mitted sets. The limit set of the controlling process must be a super‐
set of the limit set of the target process. Additional restrictions
apply if any of the uids of the target process are 0. See privi‐
leges(5).
Even if held by a privileged process, an open process or lwp file
descriptor (other than file descriptors for the world-readable files)
becomes invalid if the traced process performs an exec(2) of a
setuid/setgid object file or an object file that the traced process
cannot read. Any operation performed on an invalid file descriptor,
except close(2), fails with EAGAIN. In this situation, if any tracing
flags are set and the process or any lwp file descriptor is open for
writing, the process will have been directed to stop and its run-on-
last-close flag will have been set (see PCSET). This enables a control‐
ling process (if it has permission) to reopen the /proc files to get
new valid file descriptors, close the invalid file descriptors, unset
the run-on-last-close flag (if desired), and proceed. Just closing the
invalid file descriptors causes the traced process to resume execution
with all tracing flags cleared. Any process not currently open for
writing via /proc, but that has left-over tracing flags from a previous
open, and that executes a setuid/setgid or unreadable object file, will
not be stopped but will have all its tracing flags cleared.
To wait for one or more of a set of processes or lwps to stop or termi‐
nate, /proc file descriptors (other than those obtained by opening the
cwd or root directories or by opening files in the fd or object direc‐
tories) can be used in a poll(2) system call. When requested and
returned, either of the polling events POLLPRI or POLLWRNORM indicates
that the process or lwp stopped on an event of interest. Although they
cannot be requested, the polling events POLLHUP, POLLERR, and POLLNVAL
may be returned. POLLHUP indicates that the process or lwp has termi‐
nated. POLLERR indicates that the file descriptor has become invalid.
POLLNVAL is returned immediately if POLLPRI or POLLWRNORM is requested
on a file descriptor referring to a system process (see PCSTOP). The
requested events may be empty to wait simply for termination.
FILES
/proc
directory (list of processes)
/proc/pid
specific process directory
/proc/self
alias for a process's own directory
/proc/pid/as
address space file
/proc/pid/ctl
process control file
/proc/pid/status
process status
/proc/pid/lstatus
array of lwp status structs
/proc/pid/psinfo
process ps(1) info
/proc/pid/lpsinfo
array of lwp ps(1) info structs
/proc/pid/map
address space map
/proc/pid/rmap
reserved address map
/proc/pid/cred
process credentials
/proc/pid/priv
process privileges
/proc/pid/sigact
process signal actions
/proc/pid/auxv
process aux vector
/proc/pid/ldt
process LDT (x86 only)
/proc/pid/usage
process usage
/proc/pid/lusage
array of lwp usage structs
/proc/pid/path
symbolic links to process open files
/proc/pid/pagedata
process page data
/proc/pid/watch
active watchpoints
/proc/pid/cwd
alias for the current working directory
/proc/pid/root
alias for the root directory
/proc/pid/fd
directory (list of open files)
/proc/pid/fd/*
aliases for process's open files
/proc/pid/object
directory (list of mapped files)
/proc/pid/object/a.out
alias for process's executable file
/proc/pid/object/*
aliases for other mapped files
/proc/pid/lwp
directory (list of lwps)
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid
specific lwp directory
/proc/pid/lwp/agent
alias for the agent lwp directory
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/lwpctl
lwp control file
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/lwpstatus
lwp status
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/lwpsinfo
lwp ps(1) info
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/lwpusage
lwp usage
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/gwindows
register windows (SPARC only)
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/xregs
extra state registers
/proc/pid/lwp/lwpid/asrs
ancillary state registers (SPARC V9 only)
SEE ALSOls(1), ps(1), chroot(1M), alarm(2), brk(2), chdir(2), chroot(2),
close(2), creat(2), dup(2), exec(2), fcntl(2), fork(2), fork1(2),
fstat(2), getdents(2), getustack(2), kill(2), lseek(2), mmap(2),
nice(2), open(2), poll(2), pread(2), ptrace(3C), pwrite(2), read(2),
readlink(2), readv(2), shmget(2), sigaction(2), sigaltstack(2),
vfork(2), write(2), writev(2), _stack_grow(3C), readdir(3C),
pthread_create(3C), pthread_join(3C), siginfo.h(3HEAD), sig‐
nal.h(3HEAD), thr_create(3C), thr_join(3C), types32.h(3HEAD), ucon‐
text.h(3HEAD), wait(3C), contract(4), process(4), lfcompile(5), privi‐
leges(5)DIAGNOSTICS
Errors that can occur in addition to the errors normally associated
with file system access:
E2BIG Data to be returned in a read(2) of the page data
file exceeds the size of the read buffer provided
by the caller.
EACCES An attempt was made to examine a process that ran
under a different uid than the controlling process
and {PRIV_PROC_OWNER} was not asserted in the
effective set.
EAGAIN The traced process has performed an exec(2) of a
setuid/setgid object file or of an object file that
it cannot read; all further operations on the
process or lwp file descriptor (except close(2))
elicit this error.
EBUSY PCSTOP, PCDSTOP, PCWSTOP, or PCTWSTOP was applied
to a system process; an exclusive open(2) was
attempted on a /proc file for a process already
open for writing; PCRUN, PCSREG, PCSVADDR, PCSF‐
PREG, or PCSXREG was applied to a process or lwp
not stopped on an event of interest; an attempt was
made to mount /proc when it was already mounted;
PCAGENT was applied to a process that was not fully
stopped or that already had an agent lwp.
EINVAL In general, this means that some invalid argument
was supplied to a system call. A non-exhaustive
list of conditions eliciting this error includes: a
control message operation code is undefined; an
out-of-range signal number was specified with
PCSSIG, PCKILL, or PCUNKILL; SIGKILL was specified
with PCUNKILL; PCSFPREG was applied on a system
that does not support floating-point operations;
PCSXREG was applied on a system that does not sup‐
port extra state registers.
EINTR A signal was received by the controlling process
while waiting for the traced process or lwp to stop
via PCSTOP, PCWSTOP, or PCTWSTOP.
EIO A write(2) was attempted at an illegal address in
the traced process.
ENOENT The traced process or lwp has terminated after
being opened. The basic privilege {PRIV_PROC_INFO}
is not asserted in the effective set of the calling
process and the calling process cannot send a sig‐
nal to the target process.
ENOMEM The system-imposed limit on the number of page data
file descriptors was reached on an open of
/proc/pid/pagedata; an attempt was made with
PCWATCH to establish more watched areas than the
system can support; the PCAGENT operation was
issued when the system was out of resources for
creating lwps.
ENOSYS An attempt was made to perform an unsupported oper‐
ation (such as creat(2), link(2), or unlink(2)) on
an entry in /proc.
EOVERFLOW A 32-bit controlling process attempted to read or
write the as file or attempted to read the map,
rmap, or pagedata file of a 64-bit target process.
A 32-bit controlling process attempted to apply one
of the control operations PCSREG, PCSXREG,
PCSVADDR, PCWATCH, PCAGENT, PCREAD, PCWRITE to a
64-bit target process.
EPERM The process that issued the PCSCRED or PCSCREDX
operation did not have the {PRIV_PROC_SETID} privi‐
lege asserted in its effective set, or the process
that issued the PCNICE operation did not have the
{PRIV_PROC_PRIOCNTL} in its effective set.
An attempt was made to control a process of which
the E, P, and I privilege sets were not a subset of
the effective set of the controlling process or the
limit set of the controlling process is not a
superset of limit set of the controlled process.
Any of the uids of the target process are 0 or an
attempt was made to change any of the uids to 0
using PCSCRED and the security policy imposed addi‐
tional restrictions. See privileges(5).
NOTES
Descriptions of structures in this document include only interesting
structure elements, not filler and padding fields, and may show ele‐
ments out of order for descriptive clarity. The actual structure defi‐
nitions are contained in <procfs.h>.
BUGS
Because the old ioctl(2)-based version of /proc is currently supported
for binary compatibility with old applications, the top-level directory
for a process, /proc/pid, is not world-readable, but it is world-
searchable. Thus, anyone can open /proc/pid/psinfo even though ls(1)
applied to /proc/pid will fail for anyone but the owner or an appropri‐
ately privileged process. Support for the old ioctl(2)-based version of
/proc will be dropped in a future release, at which time the top-level
directory for a process will be made world-readable.
On SPARC based machines, the types gregset_t and fpregset_t defined in
<sys/regset.h> are similar to but not the same as the types prgregset_t
and prfpregset_t defined in <procfs.h>.
SunOS 5.10 25 Jan 2012 proc(4)
