Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 00:14:00 -0600 (MDT) From: Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com> To: spork <spork@super-g.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What is procfs? (was Re: procfs hole) Message-ID: <199708120614.AAA22312@obie.softweyr.ml.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.970811172705.4290A-100000@super-g.inch.com> References: <Pine.BSI.3.95.970810143501.19099B-100000@shell.firehouse.net> <Pine.BSF.3.96.970811172705.4290A-100000@super-g.inch.com>
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spork@super-g.com writes:
> On Sun, 10 Aug 1997, Brian Mitchell wrote:
>
> > any setuid program. As noted, the easiest way to avoid the problem is just
> > to disable procfs -- nobody really uses it anyways.
>
> Would anyone be willing to give a short explanation of the /proc
> filesystem and what the original conception of it accomplished?
It is a simple way to interface with running processes on your system.
The proc filesystem creates psuedo-files that allow the process owner to
read and write the process memory map, the registers for that process
context, and various bits of information about the process.
The advantage is that it makes writing programs like ps(1) and debuggers
much more straightforward. If you want to debug process 43, you open
/proc/43/ctl to control the process and /proc/43/mem to read its memory
map. /proc/43/regs and /proc/43/fpregs allow you to read and modify the
registers and floating-point registers, etc.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
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