READPROC(3)

READPROC(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Linux Programmer's Manual — this one's a classic, it's giving very much "reading straight out of /proc" energy. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

readproc, freeproc — read information from next /proc/## entry 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <proc/readproc.h>

proc_t* readproc(PROCTAB *PT, proc_t *return_buf);
void freeproc(proc_t *p);

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so readproc literally reads the info for the next process that matches the criteria you specified over in PT, and fills it all into a proc_t structure. main character behavior fr fr.

now here's the tea on return_buf ☕ — if it's not NULL, it's gonna use the struct that return_buf is pointing at. but if it is NULL? it allocates a brand-new proc_t structure and hands you back a pointer to it. slay.

⚠️ heads up bestie: note that (if so specified in PT) readproc always allocates memory if it fills in the environ or cmdline parts of proc_t. that memory is yours to deal with, so don't forget it exists 😭

freeproc frees all the memory allocated for the proc_t struct *p. she's the cleanup crew, the girl who brings the trash bag to the function, we love her 🫶

the proc_t structure is defined in <proc/readproc.h> — please go look there for a definition of all the fields, i'm not retyping that whole thing, it's giving novella 📖

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⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

readproc returns a pointer to the next proc_t, or NULL if there are no more processes left. that's it, that's the ending. no more girlies in the queue 💀

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• openproc(3)
• readproctab(3)
• /usr/include/proc/readproc.h
• /proc/#pid/

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🎀 REPORTING BUGS 🎀

found a bug? spill the tea, bestie — please send bug reports to procps@freelists.org 💌

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and that's the whole page, periodt. this little icon was brought to you by the Linux Manpage, dated 14 July 2014 — okurrr, mwah, bye bestie 💋👑