GETINO(1)

✨ GETINO(1) ✨

okay so bestie, buckle up, because this is getino from the GETINO(1) manual page and it's literally the cutest little process-identifier you've ever met 💖

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🌸 NAME 🌸

getino — print the unique inode number associated to a process file descriptor or namespace for a given PID

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

getino
[--pidfs|--cgroupns|--ipcns|--netns|--mntns|--pidns|--timens|--userns|--utsns]
[--print-pid|-p] PID[:inode]...

getino [--print-pid|-p] PID[:inode]...

getino PID[:inode]...

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So like. getino is a simple command — and when I say simple I mean it does one thing and it eats every time 💅. It prints the inode numbers associated with the process file descriptor (pidfd) or namespace for all the PIDs you pass to it as arguments.

Here's the part that's actually iconic: the kernel guarantees that the inode number associated with a process's file descriptor is exempt from reuse during the current boot cycle. Translation? A process can be uniquely identified by its PID plus the inode number — conveniently in the format 'PID:inode'. As an example (no cap), this enables race-free signalling of processes with kill(1), which accepts the aforementioned PID format. obsessed.

And the inode numbers associated with a namespace for a given process are, like, essentially namespace IDs — identical to the inode number reported by /proc/pid/ns/nstype. See namespaces(7) for more details, bestie 🫶

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🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• -p, --print-pid — Print both the PID and pidfd/namespace inode, separated by a colon ':', in respective order. This format convention can be used to address processes in a race-free manner, e.g. for signalling with the kill(1) command. main character energy fr fr 👑
• --pidfs — Print the unique inode number for a process's pidfs file descriptor.
• --cgroupns — Print the unique cgroup namespace inode number. See cgroup_namespaces(7)
• --ipcns — Print the unique ipc namespace inode number. See ipc_namespaces(7)
• --netns — Print the unique network namespace inode number. See network_namespaces(7)
• --mntns — Print the unique mount namespace inode number. See mount_namespaces(7)
• --pidns — Print the unique pid namespace inode number. See pid_namespaces(7)
• --timens — Print the unique time namespace inode number. See time_namespaces(7)
• --userns — Print the unique user namespace inode number. See user_namespaces(7)
• --utsns — Print the unique uts namespace inode number. See uts_namespaces(7)
• -h, --help — Display help text and exit. (bestie behaviour honestly 🙈)
• -V, --version — Display version and exit.

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⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

getino has the following exit status values:

1. 0 — success 🎉
2. 1 — unspecified failure 😭

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💜 NOTES 💜

getino requires support for the pidfs pseudo-filesystem (introduced in Linux version 6.9) to retrieve a valid inode for a process file descriptor. So if your kernel is giving ancient, it's not gonna slay here — that's just the vibe check failing, not you 🌸

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🧚 AUTHORS 🧚

Christian Goeschel Ndjomouo <cgoesc2@wgu.edu>

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

kill(1) pidfd_open(2) namespaces(7)

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💀 REPORTING BUGS 💀

For bug reports, use the issue tracker <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.

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🌟 AVAILABILITY 🌟

The getino command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

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and that's the whole page bestie — util-linux 2.42.4, dated 2026-09-21, GETINO(1), and yes this manual page ATE 💅✨ periodt.