KINFO_GETALLPROC(3)

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, meet kinfo_getallproc(3) — the function for getting process information for, like, all the processes from the kernel. no cap, it's the full roster. 👑

📚 LIBRARY 📚

System Utilities Library — that's libutil, link it with -lutil. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/user.h>
#include <libutil.h>

struct kinfo_proc *
kinfo_getallproc(int *cntp);

🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

So this function is literally used for obtaining process information of all processes from the kernel. every single one. main character energy for the whole process table. 🦋

The cntp field is a pointer containing the number of process structures returned. it's giving "here's how many came back". ✨

It's a wrapper around sysctl(3) with the KERN_PROC_PROC mib. While the kernel returns a packed structure, this function expands the data into a fixed record format. yes, it's doing the glow-up from packed to fixed records. 💅

🎀 RETURN VALUES 🎀

On success, the kinfo_getallproc() function returns a pointer to cntp struct kinfo_proc structures as defined by <sys/user.h>. 🫶

That pointer was obtained by an internal call to malloc(3) and must be freed by the caller with a call to free(3). bestie, do not forget the free(3) — that's the whole vibe check. 😭

On failure, the kinfo_getallproc() function returns NULL. and that's it. 💀

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• free(3)
• malloc(3)
• sysctl(3)

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

The kinfo_getallproc() function first appeared in FreeBSD 8.3. iconic behavior, honestly. 👑

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💌 cute little source/version + date sign-off: this page is from Debian, dated May 8, 2020 — mwah 💋✨